Bless the Child
by The Silent Scream
Summary: Word travels fast in the supernatural community, and soon after learning that she's pregnant, Willow finds herself confronted with a prophecy about her child and what it might mean for the world - and with people and demons after her for what she carries within. Willow / OC est. relationship, rating for violence and, as always, cursing.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: As promised in the last fic, here we go with the next one :) Enjoy!

Disclaimer: None of this is mine. Sadly.

* * *

Bless the Child

 _Tell the child – it doesn't know  
There are demons down below  
Save the child – it cannot see  
Bring a light so it can be  
And bless the child_

 _Jorn – Bless the Child_

The room was dark, only a few candles putting up a fight against the light, with not all too much success; none of the figures seemed to mind though as they stood in a half circle, looking at one of them standing in front of them, their faces hidden by the dominating darkness.

"You all know why we were called here today", he told them, his gaze moving from one of them to the next, making sure that they all indeed knew, "and that we must act fast."

Agreeing murmurs came from the group, and despite the weak light in the room, they could see the smile on his face as he nodded; he took another moment, making sure they were all looking at him, then spoke on, to his great relief seeing nothing but agreement and sincerity, but still knowing that he had to be absolutely certain before he could send them out.

"The child has been conceived", he thus said, "an unnatural creature, an abomination to the Lord. You all know what we must do."

Again he waited for them to nod, making sure to see not the slightest doubt on any of the faces of the group; and even though he was aware of the fact that they all knew what he was talking about, he still said it out loud, hiding a satisfied smirk when still, he saw nothing but agreement on the faces in front of him.

"Already the child is giving power to the mother", he told them, "and once it has been born, you know of the danger it will be. This child must never see the light of day."

Again the group nodded, murmuring to each other; and in Sunnydale, a hundred miles away, Buffy let out a gasp as she got torn out of her sleep, somehow just _knowing_ whom they had been talking about and that this hadn't just been a random nightmare, but a warning of much darker things to come.

* * *

Even though she had wanted to call her best friend right after waking up, Buffy had forced herself to wait until it wasn't in the middle of the night anymore; going back to sleep hadn't been an option, not with the knowledge that some creepy group was out there, with the intention to kill a child which hadn't even been born yet.

Thus, she had laid awake in bed, tossing and turning, until finally, it had been eight o'clock, and she figured she could risk calling now; while she waited for someone to take the call, her heart started beating faster and faster as she imagined more and more dreadful scenarios, about the group already having gotten their hands on Willow, until the redhead finally took the call and simultaneously some of her anxiety away.

"I had one of those Slayer dreams", she said right after Willow had greeted her with a slightly surprised sounding "Buffy?", not bothering to waste time with a greeting, "and it was about you, and your kid. Are you sitting down?"

"No, I'm standing in the living room so I won't wake Pat up", the witch gave back, "what are you talking about? Who's after our child and me?"

"I'm not sure", Buffy told her, with a small sigh, "it was… one of those dreams, you know. Quite vague, but… From what they were saying, I'm sure they were talking about you. There was this one guy, some kind of boss or something, and he kept talking about this child which was conceived unnaturally and how it was already giving power to the mother now… and how it can never see the light of day."

"…but why would they want to harm a child?" Willow brought out after letting this sink in for a few moments, swallowing heavily, "it's not born yet, I mean, I'm not even showing yet! How do they know?"

"Don't ask me", Buffy sighed, feeling bad about not having any more information for her, "I wish I could tell you more, but this is all the dream would… show me, or let me see, I guess. I just wanted to tell you as quickly as possible, so you can take care…"

"Thanks", Willow mumbled, running one hand through her hair as her mind was still reeling from what Buffy just had told her, "I better wake up Pat and tell her… Oh she won't be happy to hear this…"

"Those guys don't know whom they are gonna mess with", the Slayer told her in response, sounding confident enough to make her smile slightly, "I mean, they wanna take on the most powerful witch on the planet and her demon girlfriend, who punched out people for looking at her the wrong way. I can't even imagine what she'll do to them once she finds out they're after your child."

"I have a few ideas", Willow grimaced, "and none of them pretty. At least not for them. Not that I can blame her… Hold on, I think she's waking up. I'll talk to you later, alright?"

"Sure, and take care", Buffy advised her in response, then hung up the phone; putting it back into the charging station, the redhead studied it for another moment, asking herself what was going on now and if they never could have more than a few weeks of peace at a time, then shrugging those thoughts off and moving back into the bedroom, finding her partner awake, but not very aware there, the taller woman yawning as she glanced at her sleepily.

"Whatcha doin' up", she then grumbled, still with more coherence than Willow would have expected, "s'early."

"Buffy called", Willow let her know in response, moving over to the bed and sitting down on the edge before she bent over her partner to kiss her tenderly, briefly smiling after the kiss, at least until she remembered the reason for the Slayer's call.

"She had one of her Slayer dreams", she told the demon, her smile fading again and prompting Pat to give her a look of worry, "and, well… I don't think there's a way to tell you this which won't make you all growly-snarly, so I'll just make it brief. She dreamed of some guy talking to a group about… harming our child."

Immediately, all the sleepiness vanished from the demon's face, and she started growling lowly in the back of her throat, her good eye briefly flashing up red; not surprised by this reaction, Willow grasped her hand and gave it a tender squeeze, a hint of concern in her voice when she spoke on.

"She's sure that it was one of the Slayer dreams, you know, a prophetic one", she let the black haired woman know, "and by now, experience showed that they come true more often than not… so we might be in danger."

"Probably are", Pat grumbled, slowly calming down again to the point that the growling stopped and the red was gone from her gaze, "but we don't have much to go on, do we?"

"No", Willow sighed, giving her partner a dismayed look, "Buffy could only tell me a few vague things, the dream wasn't very… detailed. But we better be on the lookout..."

"Of course we'll be", the demon reassured her at once, making her smile slightly, "you know I won't let them hurt you, right? You, and our child…"

"I know", the redhead smiled, once more touched by how protective the demon always was of her, and now also was of their child, "but I'm worried… Buffy didn't say if they were human or not, but if they are…"

She trailed off, giving her partner another concerned look – after all, the chip which kept her from harming humans was still in her brain, and so far, despite her eager research, Willow hadn't been able to find a spell which would remove or at least deactivate it.

"Then we'll figure something else out", Pat now gave back, distracting her from those dark thoughts, "even if they are human and I might not be able to hit them directly, I won't let them do anything to you."

"I wish we knew more", Willow sighed in response, giving her lover another glum look, "now I'll get all paranoid, and worry all the time that they are waiting behind the next corner, ready to do something to us."

Not sure what to reply to this, the demon merely squeezed her as an answer, in a silent reassurance that it'd be alright; holding her gaze, the witch made herself smile at her after a moment, wanting to believe this as much as the taller woman seemed to, but finding herself too concerned to fully relax, asking herself who these people Buffy had seen in her dream had been and why they would be after an unborn child.


	2. Chapter 2

"Maybe we'll be lucky for once and I'll have another dream, which will tell us more", Buffy hazarded a few hours later, at the Magic Box, where she had met up with the demon for a sparring session and Willow had tagged along, not having anything else to do, "cause so far, we don't really have an idea about anything, except that someone's out to harm your child."

"They're welcome to try", Pat grumbled, making the blonde smile slightly, "human or not, if they try to harm Willow or our kid, I'm gonna kick their asses from here to next Sunday."

"Considering how you reacted when you learned of that pregnancy, you're remarkably protective of the kid by now", Buffy teased in response, making the demon huff; before she had a chance to reply anything though, Anya came trotting into the backroom they used for their training sessions and they all fell silent – after all, so far, the other members of the Scoobie gang hadn't been told about the pregnancy yet, something Willow had planned for the evening, when they'd all come over to dinner, and something which might be a necessity now, with a possible danger for the child somewhere out there.

"Sorry for the interruption", Anya distracted her from those ponderings, displaying a rather uncharacteristic tact, "but I just wanted to ask, Willow, should we bring anything tonight? For the big dinner? And you're still not gonna tell me what the two of you have to tell us, right?"

"No need to bring anything", the redhead gave back while Pat just smirked, "unless you want some specific drink or snack we might not have at home. And no, I'm not gonna tell you, you'll have to wait until the evening."

"Are you gonna get married?" the ex-demon tried to make her tell anyway, the witch raising an eyebrow in reply – and missing the brief look Buffy and Pat were exchanging, something which went unnoticed by the brunette as well, to the relief of both the Slayer and the demon, since it surely would have led to even more questions.

"I'm not going to tell", Willow remained firm, making Anya pout, "you'll hear it when the rest hears it."

"I bet Buffy knows", Anya grumbled, apparently accepted what the witch had said for now though, since she let them know that she'd go back to the shop's main room, just in case someone came in and wanted to buy something, making them all nod their agreement.

"So nosy", Buffy smirked the moment the door had fallen close behind the ex-demon, "I wonder how she'll react once you tell her what's going on. I bet she'll be thrilled."

"Or her first question will be if Willow cheated on me", Pat dryly threw in, making the redhead giggle slightly, "I wouldn't put that past her, seeing her remarkable lack of tact."

"Possible", the blonde had to admit, then raised an eyebrow at the demon and vaguely gestured at the training mats which had been put up in the middle of the room, asking if she was ready to have her butt kicked.

"In your dreams", Pat replied with a snort, earning another raised eyebrow from the Slayer while Willow let out a small giggle; the couple smiled at each other for a moment, then the redhead moved to the wall of the room, not wanting to end up in the line of fire on accident, knowing how intense the sparring sessions between the two could get every now and then.

While they started the sparring rather harmlessly, with punches and jabs, Willow made herself as comfortable as it was possible on the ground, leaning against the wall; for a while, she watched them, then her thoughts drifted, and she found herself pondering Buffy's dream again, and what might happen in the very near future.

Instinctively, she placed one hand on her stomach, where their child was resting; now that she knew where it was coming from, she had realized that the baby already was giving her power, as the man in Buffy's dream had said, a slight smile curling her lips as she remembered the times she had used fire just the way her partner did, along with the growls and the glowing red eyes which were so characteristic for the demon. To her relief, the fire she had caused on her hands and arms hadn't done her any harm, but she wasn't sure if she was fully fireproof, as well, the way her partner was; and since the only way to find out would be to burn herself, she hadn't dared to so far, not wanting to end up with third degree burns because of some strange theories she'd been forming about this pregnancy in the last few days.

A low grunt coming from the centre of the room distracted her, and she looked just in time to see how Buffy landed another hit, earning another grunt from the demon; with a snarl, she retaliated in form of a low sweeping kick, the Slayer easily jumping over it though, smirking at the frustrated noise Pat let out at the failed hit.

"You've used this too often", Buffy then told her as she ducked another kick, "I saw it coming from a mile away."

"Show-off", Pat grumbled, making Willow giggle slightly; shrugging, the blonde took a moment to smirk at her, then attacked yet again, and the sparring continued in earnest, the redhead watching them in silence, at least for now not thinking about the unknown danger which soon might threaten their lives anymore.

* * *

Even though she had tried hard not to, Willow had found herself looking over her shoulder more often than usual when she had gone with Pat to buy everything they'd need for the dinner at their home; if the demon had noticed, and the witch was quite sure that she had, she hadn't made any comment about it, merely acting the way she always did, something the redhead was grateful for, since it gave her the semblance of normality she needed after the unsettling news Buffy had given them.

To her relief though, no one had attacked them while they had been out shopping, and now, several hours after they had left the Magic Box, her worries were once more forgotten as she was focusing on preparing dinner for their friends; Pat was helping with the more menial tasks of the process, cutting vegetables and sniffling dramatically when the onions made her cry, the redhead giggling slightly at the sight.

"Aw", she then teased, briefly letting her concentration slip so she could look at the taller woman, "what's wrong, Sweetie? You know you can tell me."

"I'm cutting onions, that's what's wrong", Pat grumbled in response, glaring at the offending vegetable, "jeez. The things I do for you."

"I appreciate it", Willow reassured her, now stopping her work completely so she could move up to the black haired woman and wrap her arms around her waist from behind, making her smile slightly, as well, "and see it this way – for putting up with the onions now, you'll get an awesome meal later."

"And maybe something else, after everyone left again, which will be awesome, too", Pat smirked, turning in her embrace so she could put both arms around her, as well; giggling, the witch nodded, then moved her fingers to the collar of the demon's shirt and pulled her down for a kiss, then regretfully told her that she had to get on with her work, making her nod in response, along with a gesture at the onions she still had to cut and the information that she should do the same.

Still, they shared another kiss before they both focused on their tasks again; afterwards, neither of them let the other distract her anymore, and soon, the food was done, just in time to be served when the doorbell rang and the first guests in form of Buffy and Dawn arrived.

"You're the first ones", Willow told them just that after having let them in and while she led them to the living room, asking them to sit down there, "let's hope the others will be on time or the food will get cold."

"That would be kinda rude", Buffy smirked, then the bell rang again and the witch, after a brief nod and smile at her best friend, went to open it; the newest arrival was Giles, and a few minutes later, Xander and Anya joined them, as well, making the group complete.

"Dinner first", Willow told the ex-demon in a strict voice, before she had the chance to ask if they now would be told the news, "or it'll get cold."

"Fine", Anya grumbled, making the witch smile slightly before she went to get the food; her partner helped her with moving it to the living room, and soon, they all were eating, complimenting the couple on the delicious food, and having rather mindless small talk as they ate, Willow asking Dawn how it was going at college and Buffy entertaining the group with how her last patrol had gone, which had ended with her chasing a vampire all over the cemetery until he had tripped over a root and had ended up flat on his face.

"Alright", the ex-demon gleefully said the moment they all had finished eating and the plates had been relocated to the kitchen, not even waiting until Pat had returned with the drinks, "and now tell us the big news!"

"At least wait until Pat is back", Willow gave back with a roll of her eyes, making Anya huff while Xander told her to be patient and that they'd know soon enough; grumbling, the brunette shifted on the couch in response, then glanced towards the kitchen impatiently, her eyes lighting up when the demon finally came back and started handing out the drinks they all had asked for.

"So", Willow began, to Anya's obvious happiness, "I know you guys are all wondering what we have to tell you… Well, except for Buffy, she already knows."

"You know and you didn't tell me?" Dawn demanded to know, indignant; shrugging, Buffy simply told her that it wouldn't have been right to tell, the teenager grumbling slightly, but then falling silent again so Willow could do on.

"You all know I kind of, well, died a while ago", she did just that, making them all grimace and nod, "and that Pat made a deal with Hecate to bring me back, giving up her immortality in the process."

"Quite the gift", Anya nodded, giving the demon an impressed look; they all had been shocked when they had been told about this, but also grateful to the taller woman, for giving up eternal life so Willow could be brought back to them.

"Apparently", the redhead now continued, making them all focus on her again, "I was given more than just my life when Hecate used her immortality to bring me back. Because, as we found out during the whole mess with Collard and his super soldiers… I'm pregnant."

Momentarily, Buffy regretted that she didn't have a camera and thus couldn't capture the faces of their friends; they all looked stunned, Giles' mouth even hanging open while Anya looked as if she was about to faint in a second.

"Pregnant", Xander finally was the first one to say something, in a tone of voice that suggested he was saying that the moon was made out of cheese, "you're pregnant? And… Pat got you pregnant?"

"You could say it that way, yes", Willow confirmed, smiling when the demon slid one arm around her, "it's our child. We had a brief chat with Hecate after finding out I'm pregnant and she pretty much confirmed it."

"This is… extraordinary", Giles mumbled, looking at her in awe, "I didn't even know this was possible. This child might have great powers once it's born…"

"This is the first thing you think about?" Dawn wanted to know, raising an eyebrow at him, "you get such news and the first thing which comes to your mind is, oh, this kid will have awesome powers?"

"No, of course not", Giles gave back, sounding indignant now, making the witch and the demon smile slightly, "but of course this must be taken into consideration. But, well, congratulations, you two."

And with those words, he got up from his seat and moved to the witch, hugging her, then pulling the demon into a hug as well; as if this had been some kind of signal, the rest moved to do the same, Xander by now having recovered enough to be grinning from ear to ear.

"I want to be honorary uncle", he declared after pulling back from the embrace, "Uncle Xander. Can I be honorary uncle?"

"Sure", Pat smirked, causing his smile to widen, "and I suppose that makes Anya the honorary aunt, then."

Before Anya could give her opinion on being honorary aunt, Buffy piped up, sounding so relieved that it made them all chuckle and giggle, a bright smile on her face accompanying her words. "I'm so glad you finally told them. It was getting really hard to keep that secret, you know!"

"I imagine", Willow giggled, "and thank you for not saying anything. We both appreciate it."

"We should have champagne!" Anya cried out all at once, making them all flinch, "this is the proper thing to have at such an occasion, right?!"

"Well, not for the woman who's pregnant", Pat pointed out, raising an eyebrow at her; to her amusement, Anya had nothing to reply to that, and after letting out a low chuckle, the demon suggested that she'd get some non-alcoholic drinks for a toast, making the ex-demon nod her agreement at once, a smirk still on the taller woman's face as she went to get the drinks, both Willow and she glad that their closest friends had taken the news so well.


	3. Chapter 3

"They all took it really well, didn't they", Willow smiled several hours later, stowing the last few glasses and plates in the dishwasher; next to her, Pat nodded as she finished dumping the empty cans and snack packages into the trash bin, then turned to look at her, smiling slightly as she replied.

"Come on", she said, stepping closer to the witch and pulling her into an embrace, "did you expect anything else? We've got the best friends and you know it, of course they took it well. And Dawn was just hilarious when she said she couldn't wait to put her ear to your baby belly."

"Even though she'll still have to wait a few months for that", Willow giggled, "I wonder when I'll start to show. And if I'll have any of the typical pregnancy experiences, like morning sickness and strange cravings."

"Well, in case you wake up at three a.m. and crave ice cream, I promise I'll run to the next store and get you some", the demon gave back, causing the witch to let out a little "Aww!"; they smiled at each other again, then moved into the living room, the taller woman looking around critically before she decided that it was clean enough and sat down on the couch, patting the spot next to her and prompting the redhead to join her, a small smile curling her lips when immediately, Willow snuggled up to her.

"You know", the black haired woman started after just enjoying the snuggles for a while, "perhaps we should start looking for another place. This apartment's fine for two, but there's not really room for a baby."

"You're right", Willow agreed at once, finding it hard to believe that she hadn't thought of this yet, "we should look for something else… a bigger apartment perhaps, or…"

"Or a house", Pat finished for her, smirking slightly, "hey, maybe we can get one close to Buffy's, Dawn did say that she's willing to babysit whenever it's necessary, that would make it easier."

"Houses are expensive though", the redhead pointed out, not surprised when the taller woman just shrugged in response.

"So?" she then said out loud, "you have a filthy rich girlfriend, that's not a problem."

"I'd feel bad though if you paid for all of it", Willow let her know, prompting her to raise an eyebrow, "I was planning to contribute once I'd start working after university, but now with me pregnant, that'll take longer than expected…"

"Don't worry about it", the demon gave back, underlining her words with a shrug, "it's no problem, really. And if we move, we might as well move into a place which we own and for which we won't have to pay rent."

"Good point", Willow had to agree, making her partner smile slightly; they exchanged a brief kiss, then Pat let her know that she'd get something to drink, asking her if she wanted something as well and making her nod.

Quickly, the demon made her way to the kitchen, getting two cans of soda from the fridge; she balanced them precariously in one hand as she checked the front pocket of her pants with the other, satisfied that the small square object was still there, taking in a deep breath and clearing her throat before she returned to the living room.

"Thanks", Willow smiled at her as she handed her the drink, then sat down next to her; in response, the taller woman smirked at her, then made her raise an eyebrow with what she said next. "Actually, champagne would be more fitting now, as Anya surely would say, but seeing that you're pregnant…"

"Well, champagne would have been good when the others were still around", the witch gave back, asking herself why the taller woman would bring this up now, "for the toast, but it worked fine with the sodas, right?"

"Right", Pat gave back, then cleared her throat again and even shifted slightly on the couch, prompting the redhead to give her a concerned look.

"Are you okay?" she then asked, "you seem… different, even though you just went to get drinks and weren't even gone for a minute."

"I'm fine", the demon reassured her, only to make her wonder how true this was by clearing her throat yet again afterwards; and then, she shifted on the couch once more so she ended up facing her, the witch now feeling nervous as she held her gaze.

"There's something I have to… say", Pat started, now looking nervous as well, and giving Willow the impression that she had corrected herself in the last second before she'd said the last word, "in fact, something I've been wanting to say for a while, but couldn't find the guts to until now…"

"…alright", Willow gave back, not sure what to expect; to her relief, the taller woman grasped her hand, giving her the security that this wasn't a break-up talk – something she hadn't really expected anyway, since their relationship was going as well as it could go – and held it tenderly, her thumb almost absent-mindedly caressing the back of it as she went on.

"Before I met you, I never would have thought I'd have someone in my life who could mean so much to me", Pat let her know, making her smile slightly, even though she didn't say anything, knowing that the demon wasn't done yet, "and that I'd be lucky enough to mean just as much to this person."

She briefly fell quiet to clear her throat once more, but still Willow didn't say anything, just holding her gaze and giving her an encouraging smile, wanting her to say what was so important to her even though she still wasn't sure where this would lead.

"I love you", the taller woman told her after another second of sorting her thoughts, "more than I ever thought I could love anyone, and I can't – and don't want to… imagine my life without you anymore. You're my everything, I'd die for you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, no matter if that life ends in some messed-up battle tomorrow or if it lasts until we're old and grey and have rocking chairs."

Touched by those heartfelt words, knowing what a hard time her partner had when it came to talking about her feelings, Willow swallowed a sudden thick lump in her throat, telling herself that she wouldn't cry; Pat gave her a slight smile, then took in another deep breath – before she reached into her pocket and, to Willow's endless astonishment, brought out a small black box, the redhead's heart rate shooting through the roof as she finally realized where this was leading.

"I love you", the taller woman repeated her previous words, "and I want to be with you for as long as it's possible, no matter what happens. So… Will you marry me?"

With those words, she opened the box, to her immense relief managing to do so without any fumbling around with the small clasp; a small gasp came from the witch as her gaze fell on the ring, a simple silver band with a small emerald set into it, the stone catching the light, then blurring as tears filled her eyes after all.

"Yes", she brought out, somehow managing to do so without choking up, "Goddess, I never would have… yes, of course! I love you too, so much…"

For a moment, she was sure that the taller woman wouldn't be able to get the ring on her finger, since her hands were trembling quite badly; then, the demon took tender hold of her hand and the shaking stopped at once, a smile so wide that she feared the corners of her mouth might reach her ears forming on her face when the black haired woman slid the ring onto her finger, astonishing and delighting her with the fact that it was a perfect fit.

"I can't believe it", she brought out, staring at the ring as if she expected it to vanish into nothingness, "I'm engaged! We're engaged now!"

"Yes, we are", Pat agreed with a chuckle, "and you won't believe how long it took me to work up the nerve to ask you. I've been carrying this box around for a week."

"As if there was ever any doubt that I'd say yes", the witch replied, shaking her head, "come on, you didn't really think I'd say no, right?"

"No, of course not", Pat reassured her, pulling her in for a hug, "but still. It's a big thing, and I wanted to get it right…"

"You did", Willow told her at once, still smiling from ear to ear; the taller woman had a moment to smile back at her, then the redhead pulled her in for a kiss, one which started out tender, but soon grew much more passionate, the way the smaller woman's hands slid beneath her partner's shirt minutes later making it more than obvious how the rest of the evening would be spent.


	4. Chapter 4

In the next morning, the redhead was the first one to wake up, as she so often did; next to her, Pat still slumbered soundly, snoring softly to herself as she laid flat on her back, one arm loosely around the witch's waist, making her smile to herself as she just enjoyed lying there for a while, listening to her partner's heartbeat and feeling the warmth of her body beneath her.

 _Your fiancée,_ she then reminded herself, raising her head slightly so she could look at the ring on her finger, smiling again at the sight, holding back the urge to let out a giddy giggle, not wanting to wake Pat up.

 _I need to call Buffy and tell her about this,_ she thought as she carefully disentangled from the embrace, then got out of bed and made her way to the bathroom, closing the door behind herself to keep the noise from reaching the bedroom as she got started with her morning hygiene, _and Xander, and Giles… This is just too great._

Bouncing on the spot, she looked at the ring again, finding it hard to believe how giddy this was making her feel; after all, Pat and she had spoken about getting married a few times, especially after it had been made legal in California, but those always had been light-hearted chats about the topic, no serious discussions and surely none from which she had expected a proposal to happen.

Again, she looked at the ring, and it made her smile widely once more; she briefly wondered how long it would take her until she'd be able to glance at it without grinning, then shrugged it off, telling herself that it was perfectly normal and that she had every right to be ridiculously happy about this.

 _We'll have to make another party,_ she thought to herself with a little giggle, then forced herself to stop so she could brush her teeth, _celebrate our engagement… And then planning the wedding… I'll get married!_

Momentarily, she thought of Buffy's dream again, of the danger their unborn child and she might be in; then, she shrugged those thoughts off, realizing that she was too happy to worry much.

A low grunt coming from the bedroom distracted her from those thoughts, followed by footsteps approaching the bathroom door; and moments later, Pat joined her, merely grunting sleepily at the rather mumbled greeting Willow gave her, her words muffled by the toothbrush in her mouth.

"Good morning", she repeated herself after spitting out the foam and rinsing, smiling brightly at the demon, "my handsome, albeit grouchy, fiancée."

That brought her a less grumpy reaction, namely a slight smile from the demon; smiling back, Willow moved up to her to briefly kiss her on the cheek, then returned to the sink to go through the rest of her morning routine, making room for her partner so she could brush her teeth, as well.

"You know", she started while she began brushing her hair, not minding the fact that her partner was incapable of proper conversation in the morning right after getting up, "I just thought that now, we should have another party, to celebrate our engagement."

The only response she got was a vaguely agreeing grunting noise, and she giggled again, shaking her head; then, as she got done with her routine, she left the bathroom to her partner and made her way into the kitchen, immediately moving to the coffee machine there and getting it started, so the coffee would be done by the time Pat would join her.

While the black liquid was running through, she started preparing the rest of the breakfast, deciding on a rather light one after the big dinner they'd had the evening before; and by the time she was halfway through with making it, Pat came trotting into the kitchen, her eye lightning up when she realized that the coffee was almost done by then.

"Best girlfriend ever", she mumbled, making the redhead giggle slightly; somehow, the demon even managed to smirk back at her, then moved to the window and opened it before she lit up her morning cigarette, remaining right next to it, both of them having agreed on the fact that smoking in closed rooms wasn't an option anymore, not with the witch pregnant.

"Best _fiancée_ ever", Willow now corrected her with another giggle, making her smirk again; briefly, the two smiled at each other, then the witch focused on preparing breakfast again while Pat smoked in silence, looking out of the window every now and then, even though her gaze returned to the redhead again and again, a slight smile curling her lips each time she looked at her lover.

When she had made the proposal, there had never had been any doubt that Willow would say anything else but Yes, but still she had been terribly nervous; she had tried recalling the last time she had felt like this and had found herself unable to, this being only another sign for how important the whole proposal had been to her.

When the idea first had hit her mind, she had spoken to Buffy about it, the one from the gang she felt closest to; and immediately, Buffy had told her to go for it, reassuring her that of course, Willow would say yes, that it was a great idea and even offering to help her with buying the ring.

Even though she figured that by now, she knew Willow's taste quite well, the demon had agreed to that, not wanting to mess up on the ring size or something equally crucial; and as the previous night had shown, Buffy's help had paid off big time, with the ring being such a perfect fit and the witch obviously more than happy to wear it.

 _Gotta thank Buffy for that one,_ she pondered, finishing her smoke and putting it out in the ashtray she strategically had placed on the windowsill; carefully, since she didn't want to throw it on the floor, she closed the window again, then moved to the witch and hugged her from behind, smiling again when immediately, the smaller woman leaned into the embrace.

"So", she then mumbled, much more coherent now that she'd had her first cigarette, "does my fiancée have any special plans for today?"

"Not really", the witch shrugged, fighting the urge to turn in the embrace so she could look at her, "I thought about heading over to the Magic Box, and restock some of my supplies. If you feel like tagging along, maybe we could have lunch somewhere first and then go there? Or the other way round, however you prefer."

"Lunch first", Pat decided at once, not really surprising her, "cause if I go to the Magic Box with you, Anya will surely make me lug heavy boxes around again."

"You might be right about that", Willow had to agree, making the taller woman nod heartily; afterwards, she bent forward slightly to kiss the witch on the cheek, then moved to the coffee machine since it finally had gotten done, still unable to stop looking at the redhead again and again, telling herself that not too long from now, this woman wouldn't just be her girlfriend anymore, but her wife, the thought putting a happy smile onto her face.

* * *

After breakfast, Willow decided that it was now not too early anymore to call Buffy, and did just that; to her relief, the Slayer sounded quite awake and alert when she greeted her, and she didn't even try to keep the giddiness out of her voice when she spoke on after returning said greeting.

"You'll never guess what happened yesterday after you'd all left", she gushed, the happiness in her voice making her best friend smile; and even though she could guess pretty well what had happened, Buffy feigned ignorance, merely asking "What?" and letting out a rather girlish giggle as well at Willow's enthusiastic response. "Pat proposed! And I said yes! We'll get married, Buffy!"

"That's great", Buffy gave back at once, and the redhead could hear the smile on her face, "but I have to be honest with you, I knew Pat was gonna do that. Finally! She's been carrying that box around for a week!"

"You knew and you didn't tell me", Willow demanded to know, momentarily irritated – before she realized what she was asking, hurriedly going on, without giving the Slayer a chance to respond. "Of course you didn't tell me, that would have been completely mean to Pat, and it would have ruined the surprise… Forget I said that. But wait, you knew?"

"Yes, I knew", Buffy confirmed with a small laugh, "but of course I couldn't tell you, Pat would have killed me. She talked to me about it actually, if I thought it's a good idea, and of course I said yes, and then I gave her a bit of help about your ring size."

"You did well", the witch had to admit, making the blonde smirk proudly, "it fits perfectly. I can't wait to show it… Wait, if you helped her, you already know what it looks like."

"Isn't it gorgeous?", the Slayer gushed in response, to her amusement, "she saw that and just knew it's the right one for you, and I of course agreed."

"It is", the redhead agreed at once, "gosh, you should see me, since yesterday, I've been grinning like a fool the whole time. I'm afraid my face is going to split soon or something."

"You deserve it", Buffy gave back, suddenly sounding quite sincere, her tone of voice taking the witch aback quite a bit, "both of you. And I'm happy for you, you're really lucky…"

"I know", Willow smiled, turning to look at where her partner was standing at the wardrobe and tried to decide on a shirt for the day, "sometimes, I find it hard to believe just how lucky I am…"

"Well, it's perfectly real", Buffy reassured her, now smiling again, "so are you guys gonna hold another party?"

"Yeah", the witch replied at once, still finding herself unable to look away from the demon, the taller woman by now having noticed her looks and smiling back at her; somehow, the redhead managed to focus on Buffy again despite how this made her knees weaken, talking to the Slayer for a few more minutes until she let her know that she had to go hang up now and that they'd talk again soon.

"Buffy's lucky she didn't tell you", Pat told her the moment she had done so, now moving over to her and pulling her into a tender embrace, "or I would have beaten her up."

"That's not nice", Willow chided, not fully serious, as evidenced by her smirk and the way she returned the taller woman's embrace, snuggling closer to her – and briefly finding it regretful that Pat had put on a shirt already –, "you shouldn't threaten to beat up your best friend."

"I normally don't", the demon pointed out, "but I totally would have if she had told you that I'm planning to propose. All the surprise would have been ruined!"

"Well, she didn't", Willow replied with another giggle, "and you surprised me big time. So no more talk of beating up Buffy, better kiss me instead."

"As if I ever could say no to that", the black haired woman chuckled, making the witch smile for another moment – before her partner's lips captured hers and she let out a content sigh as she tighten her embrace around her, once more thanking her lucky stars and anyone else who might be listening for how happy she was and how good her life was going.


	5. Chapter 5

"The menu here is too big", Willow complained, not fully serious, a few hours later, studying said menu of the restaurant they had chosen for lunch, "and it all sounds so yummy."

"Maybe you're having cravings already", Pat immediately took the chance given for some teasing, smirking at the look the redhead shot her in reply, "and that's why it all seems yummy."

"It's too early for cravings", the witch told her, sounding slightly indignant and making her chuckle, "and even if I had any, it wouldn't be nice to tease me about them."

"Awww", the taller woman cooed at once, ignoring the way the elderly couple at the next table was staring at them, "you know I'd never tease you in earnest. Just kidding a bit."

"I know", the redhead reassured her at once, reaching over the table to grasp her hand and give it a tender squeeze; the two briefly smiled at each other, then Willow focused on the menu again, finally settling on one of the dishes, her gaze briefly focusing on the engagement ring again while she closed the menu and put it down, then moved on to her partner, a small smile immediately curling her lips again the moment her eyes met the taller woman's.

"Gosh", she then mumbled, shaking her head, "as I said to Buffy today, since you proposed, I can't stop grinning. I'll get facial cramps soon. And wrinkles."

"I'll massage those cramps away", the demon offered, making Willow giggle while the elderly lady at the next table nearly choked on her drink; they both ignored the incredulous looks she shot them, neither of them in the mood to deal with something like this right now, still fully focused on each other.

"I'll be right back", Willow let the taller woman know after the waiter had been to their table, serving their drinks and taking their lunch orders, "just a quick trip to the restroom."

Nodding, Pat took the chance given for a quick touch when the witch moved past her on her way to the restroom, running her fingers along the smaller woman's hand as she passed her; smiling at the tender gesture, the redhead took a moment to glance at her, then moved on to the washroom, still feeling giddy when she entered one of the stalls and her gaze yet again fell on the ring.

Fighting the urge to hum happily to herself, she quickly got done with her business, eager to return to her partner and have the meal she had ordered; and when she got done opened the door again, a man stood there, just close enough to the door so it wouldn't hit him upon being opened, looking at her.

"Excuse me", she began, momentarily startled by this unexpected presence, "I think you're in the wrong—"

He moved shockingly fast, stepping so close to her that his body was almost touching hers, his right hand coming up, the witch just having a second to notice that he was holding some small black object – before it touched her and his thumb pushed down and bright pain shot through her, so intense that she couldn't even scream, only a low mixture of grunt and groan leaving her mouth as her muscles cramped up.

From the corner of her eye, she noticed movement, a second man stepping up to her and grabbing her before she could fall; she groaned again as he lowered her to the ground almost tenderly, willing herself to scream, to fight, to do anything which would stop them, but no matter how hard she tried, her muscles just wouldn't listen to the commands her brain was giving them more and more frantically.

Without a word, the man who had caught her rolled her over on her stomach, his companion by now having put the taser away; a silver glint briefly caught her eye as it flashed past her face, then her arms were pulled back and cold steel closed around her wrists, a low whimper coming from her as she realized too late what was going on.

Another, slightly louder groan escaped her when the man who had caught her grabbed her hair and pulled her head up; she had a moment to ask herself what he would do, then he stuffed a wad of cloth into her mouth, muffling the few noises she was capable of letting out while he tied a second one over it, preventing her from forcing it back out – and then, while she felt the other one chain her ankles, he pulled a hood made of black cloth over her head, effectively blinding her and rendering her fully helpless.

Horrified, she realized how fast this had happened as she felt them grab her arms and haul her up; from the moment she had opened the door to the second they dragged her out through another unseen doorway, barely a minute had passed, far from long enough to let Pat notice that something was amiss and come for her, her blood running cold as she felt fresh air moments later, indicating that she had been taken outside.

Still there wasn't much more she could do than let out another weak groan as she felt them manhandle her into a car; the door slammed shut, and she cried out as the engine was started, something cold and with a strong chemical smell wetting the hood moments later, the witch only realizing what it was when her head started to swim.

 _Oh Goddess no,_ she still had time to think, her kidnappers ignoring the weak sob she let out, _someone help me, please! Pat!_

Her last thought was of the demon, a desperate try to send yet another magical distress call, as she had done twice before, focusing all her energy on it until the stuff they had poured on the hood overwhelmed her and she fell unconscious.

* * *

When Willow hadn't been back from the bathroom after ten minutes, Pat had started to worry, but had told herself not to be paranoid and that surely, there was a reason for the witch taking so long, a line at the toilet maybe or running into someone she knew and talking to them for a bit before she'd return to the table.

Thus, she had waited another five minutes before she had gone to check on her lover; and in the days to come, she'd curse herself over and over for this, asking herself again and again if perhaps, she could have done something, had she gone earlier.

At this very moment though, those moments of blaming herself still were far from her mind as she grabbed Willow's handbag to make sure no one would snatch it while nobody was at their table, then made her way to the restroom; and the moment she entered it, she knew that something was wrong, her heart suddenly beating up to her throat as she realized that she was the only one in there.

"Willow?" she still called out, even though she already knew her lover wasn't there; she stood in silence for what felt like an eternity, waiting for a reply, swallowing heavily when the room remained quiet.

Despite the knowledge that the redhead wasn't there, she checked the stalls, not really surprised to find all three of them unlocked and empty; there was no trace of her partner, and by now, it was quite hard for her to remain calm, but still she kept up a cool façade as she left the restroom again, stopping the nearest waiter and asking him if he had seen the woman she had come here with leave.

"No", the young man replied, sounding a bit surprised and confused, "why do you ask? Is there something wrong, Ma'am?"

"…no", the demon replied after a moment, not wanting to involve him in this, knowing that he'd end up calling the police and figuring that they wouldn't be much help, "but I'm afraid we can't have that lunch we ordered… of course I'll pay you, but…"

"Oh, sure, no problem", the waiter gave back, still slightly confused, "just a minute, I'll get your bill…"

Even though all she wanted was to rush off, find Buffy and start figuring out what had happened, Pat made herself nod, fighting the urge to fidget nervously while the guy walked off to get the bill; it seemed to take him forever to get back, and by the time he did, she was sweating, all kinds of horrendous scenarios running through her mind, the fact that Buffy had had one of her Slayer dreams about someone being after the redhead and their child having come back to her and only increasing her fears.

Still, she kept those thoughts and feelings hidden as she paid the waiter, even thought of giving him a tip; she mumbled another excuse for having to cancel their order, then hurried out of the restaurant, the young man and his evident confusion forgotten the moment she'd turned away from him.

Not bothering if anyone saw her and thought it was strange or suspicious, she hurried to the back of the building, remembering the door she had spotted in the restroom; just like she had thought, it was leading outside, to the small alley behind the restaurant, and one look at the door told her that usually, it was locked – which made sense, she had to admit, or people might just walk out after eating without paying – but that someone had tampered with it and had opened it from the outside, allowing them to enter the restroom unseen.

Still fighting hard to keep her calm, the demon dug out her phone and called Buffy, hoping and praying that the Slayer wasn't busy with something and would take the call, something the blonde did, to her great relief, after the third ring.

"Someone's taken Willow", Pat started without any greeting, some of her calm finally slipping and adding a hint of fear and panic to her voice, "we've gone out for lunch, she went to the restroom and never came back, someone's taken her…"

"What?" was all Buffy could bring out, shocked, then took in a deep breath, telling herself that she had to keep a clear head to figure out what had happened, somehow managing to sound calming and soothing when she spoke on a few moments later. "Alright, where exactly are you? I'll be there as fast as I can, we'll figure this out, I promise."

In response, the demon took in a few deep breaths as well in an attempt to calm herself down, then told Buffy the address of the restaurant, adding that she was in the alley behind it; Buffy reassured her that she'd be there in ten minutes, the building to her relief not far from the Summers home, once more reassuring her that it'd be okay before she ended the call and hurried out of the house.

Tugging her phone back into her pocket, Pat took in another deep breath, then found her cigarettes and lit one of them up, with the hope it might help her to keep her calm; and while she smoked and waited for Buffy, she took another, closer look at the door lock, once more confirming that it had been broken open from the outside, then checked the alley for anything which might give them clues about what had happened, her heart sinking when she found nothing out of the ordinary.

"This'll be okay", she mumbled to herself, taking a long drag of her smoke, "you'll figure this out and it'll be okay… Please Willow, just be okay…"

Hating how helpless this made her feel, she ran a shaking hand through her hair, her thoughts with her partner as she waited for Buffy to arrive, telling herself over and over again that Willow would be fine and that surely, they'd find out who was behind this before any serious harm could be done to the witch or to their unborn child.


	6. Chapter 6

"That lock's been tampered with", Pat let Buffy know eight minutes later, pointing to the lock as if to underline her words, "I suppose they normally keep the door locked, but whoever took her broke it open once she went to the restroom and then they must have snatched her from there…"

"Afraid you're right", Buffy mumbled, scanning the area around them for any clues, even though she knew that Pat surely already had done that, "but who? And why?"

"Your dream", Pat reminded her in response, her crestfallen tone and look prompting the blonde to move closer to her and place a reassuring hand on her shoulder, "it must have been those guys, that's too much of a coincidence otherwise… Or maybe someone after money, they might know we're not exactly poor and want money…"

Even though the thought of someone kidnapping Willow for money wasn't exactly calming, Buffy had to admit that she preferred it to the idea of the men in her dream now having the witch in their grasp; after all, someone who was only after cash would let the redhead most likely go again after they had been paid, while in her dream, there had been rather dark talk about killing the unborn child of the witch and the demon.

"We have to figure this out somehow", Pat distracted her from those thoughts, the way she was running both hands through her hair and glaring around showing how close to the edge she was, "find out who took her, and why and where, and then get her out of there, before…"

Her voice broke, and within seconds, Buffy had her in an embrace, feeling her shudder in her arms as she fought to keep herself together, rubbing her back soothingly in an attempt to calm her down, even though she felt quite shaken up by this incident herself.

"We will", she reassured her, her mind racing as she tried to figure out how exactly they would do that, "we'll call Giles right now, maybe there's some magic we can do to find her, or find out what exactly happened… The coven will surely help, too, and the rest of the gang… I promise it'll be okay. But I'll need you to keep it together, you know it won't help anyone if you freak out…"

"I should have gone looking for her", Pat replied tonelessly, "when it took her so long, I should have gone to check on her… I could have stopped them…"

"Unless they were human", Buffy gently reminded her, even though she knew this was the last thing the taller woman wanted to hear now, "then you'd only ended up getting hurt and they probably would have taken her anyway…"

"…I know", Pat mumbled after a moment, "but I still should have gone to see if she's okay… dammit, we knew you'd had that dream, we knew she might be in danger, and I just…"

"Stop that", Buffy told her in a strict voice in response, making her look at her with slight surprise, "beating yourself up over this won't help, and we need to act fast to get her out of… wherever they took her, before they do anything to her."

"Her laptop", the taller woman said in reply, with a look on her face that indicated she just had had the idea of the year, one the Slayer clearly didn't have though since she just could stare at her in confusion, prompting her to elaborate.

"Remember when that stalker idiot had her", she did just that, "she had this program for tracking cell phones on her laptop, I bet it's still on it… If her phone's in her pocket, we can use that to find her…"

"That's brilliant", the blonde gave back, smiling slightly; in response, the black haired woman just shrugged, then started digging through Willow's back, looking and sounding relieved when she told her a minute later that the phone wasn't in it.

"I'll go back home and work on that", she then added, making Buffy nod, "and you contact Giles, in case it doesn't work out… I hope I still remember how to do this, I only used it once, when that guy had her…"

"You'll work it out", Buffy promised her in response – before her eyes widened as another thought hit her, her smile widening momentarily before she relayed it to her friend. "And you're friends with a bunch of shapeshifters, who have excellent sense of smell! Maybe they can help track her!"

"Holy crap, you're right", Pat realized, momentarily feeling like slamming her head against the next wall for not thinking of this on her own, "I can't believe I didn't think of this. Alright, I'll call them on the way home, then try to track her phone, and once we know where she is, we'll come down on those guys like a ton of goddamn bricks."

"Alright", Buffy agreed, "let's split up then, and you'll call me the second you know anything!"

"Will do", Pat promised, already digging out her phone; and while she hurried off to their home and Buffy made her way to Giles', she dialled Derek's number, again scolding herself for not having thought of their shapeshifting friends and their abilities sooner.

To her dismay, the young Alpha of the Pack didn't take the call, and she ended up in his voicemail; giving her best to keep her irritation about this out of her voice, she left a message for him, still making it clear though that this wasn't a random social call, but that she was calling for an important reason.

"Hey, Derek, it's me, Pat", she let him know, "call me back right after you listened to this, it's an emergency and we need your help. Thanks."

Hoping that he would get the message soon and call her, she hung up and tugged the phone back into her pocket, then continued her way back home, her thoughts with her partner and the hope that she'd be alright, no matter who had taken her and what those people were planning to do to her.

* * *

When Willow woke up again, her head was pounding, something she blamed on the stuff the men had knocked her out with; to her relief, she found herself without the hood and the gag though, her ankles still chained together, her hands now cuffed in front of her, making it a bit more comfortable for her.

Asking herself what kind of trouble she was in, she glanced around, dismayed to find herself in some small room, locked up in a cage; there was no one else in there with her, but she figured they'd come to her soon enough, and hopefully tell her what this all was about.

Trying to ignore the ache in her head and how dry her mouth felt, the witch shifted slightly on the cold stone floor, glancing around at her surroundings again; to her dismay, the room she was in told her nothing about who had taken her there and what they might want from her, a small, barred window and the cage she had been locked up in being the only furniture inside, the light which fell into the room through the window being enough to let her see properly, but the window being too high to let her peer outside and figure out where she was.

"Great, just great", she muttered to herself, shaking her head; she figured that, since she hadn't been killed while she had been out cold, she had been taken to this place for a reason, and none of those she could come up with were appealing to her, ranging from mere bait for her partner or Buffy to the dream Buffy had had, about those mysterious men being after their child.

Neither of those options was very pleasant to think about, but she had to admit that, if she'd had the choice, she'd prefer being the bait; damsel in distress wasn't a role she liked herself in, but it'd still be better than finding herself on the business end of a sword or even a gun, should her kidnappers turn out to be the men Buffy had dreamt about, out to kill her unborn baby.

 _But if they want to kill our child, why take me here,_ she then pondered while she absent-mindedly studied the handcuffs, trying to focus enough so she could perform the spell which would unlock them and at least give her a bit more freedom, _why not kill me right there? That would have taken care of the baby as well…_

Deciding that she could ponder this later, Willow focused on the handcuffs fully now, her eyes narrowing slightly as she tried to access the magic within her so she could open them; and moments later, blinding pain shot from her brain through her whole body, a startled cry escaping her as she cringed, tears filling her eyes, caused by the sheer ache which was setting her nerves ablaze.

"Do not attempt your dark arts in this room, witch", a strangely metallic sounding voice came up out of nowhere, making her flinch; trying to blink away her tears, the redhead looked around, but still found herself alone in the room, realizing a bit belatedly that whoever was talking to her was doing so via hidden speaker.

"Doing so will only result in more pain", the voice went on, briefly making her wonder if they could see her, as well, or had heard her breathless outcry when the pain had hit, sweat now trickling down her brow as she slumped back against the bars of the cage; she waited to see if the speaker had more to say, but they remained quiet, neither giving her any more warnings, nor explanations, and after just sitting there for a while in complete silence, she realized that this was all the information she'd get for now, her heart sinking as she stared into nothingness, trying to comprehend what was happening to her and why this was being done to her.


	7. Chapter 7

An hour had passed since Pat had booted Willow's laptop, had found the program she had used back then to track her cell phone and had gotten it running; and just like during the first time she had used it, she felt like smashing her fist through the machine's screen, frustrated with the whole thing, her worry for her partner and their child not helping her with keeping her calm.

"Damn you, piece of shit", she snarled at the laptop as she punched down on the keys, giving her best to not use her full strength, knowing she'd most likely break something within the machine then, "work! Work and show me where she is!"

Irritated, she glanced at her own phone, not wanting to miss Derek's call during her struggles with technology; to her dismay, he hadn't called her back yet, but she held back the urge to call him yet again, figuring that he was most likely dealing with important Pack business at the moment and simply hadn't found the time to contact her yet.

"Call me back, wolf boy", she grumbled at the phone, then focused on the laptop again; without even noticing that she was doing it, she started growling lowly in the back of her throat as she kept trying to make it work, another fifteen minutes passing that way, the taller woman focusing so hard on the task at hand that it made her jump almost to the ceiling when her phone rang.

For a second, she had the hope that Derek was calling her back, then she snatched up the phone and glanced at the display, mildly disappointed to see that it was Buffy, keeping that emotion out of her voice though when she took the call and greeted the blonde, not surprised when the Slayer didn't bother to return the greeting, but immediately started talking business.

"Giles contacted the coven", she let the demon know, "and they're gonna put all their focus into locating Willow. We all know how difficult that spell is when you wanna find a human, but the woman Giles talked to said they should be able to do if they all focus their efforts…"

"Thank Goodness", Pat mumbled, "cause I'm getting nowhere with this stupid program, at least I didn't so far, and Derek hasn't called me back so far, either. And to think that Willow's with those creepy guys just a minute longer than absolutely necessary…"

"No ransom demands?" Buffy wanted to know, even though she already knew the answer, something the black haired woman only confirmed with her reply. "Nope, nothing. And I think we both know we won't get any, because that's not why she was kidnapped."

"…I know", the Slayer had to agree after a moment, "and you know we'll do anything to find her, right? Giles promised to call me the moment the coven knows something."

"Yeah, I know", the demon sighed in response, "but that doesn't make all that waiting any easier."

"She'll be okay", the blonde promised her, managing to sound more convinced of that than she was actually feeling, "I promise. Both she and your kid are gonna be okay."

"If they harm one hair on her head or do something to the kid, I'll kill them", Pat replied, the calm tone with which she said those words only making it worse, "I'll find some way past that damn chip and kill them one by one, and you better don't try to stop me, human or not."

"I won't", Buffy reassured her at once, momentarily surprising her a bit – before she realized that, while killing someone on her own as the Slayer was not permitted, it didn't mean that she couldn't let someone else do the dirty work and just look the other way, something she clearly was more than willing to do when it came to those men, considering the plans they had for her best friend and the child.

"Good", the taller woman grumbled, then let her know that she'd go back to working on the damned program; in response, Buffy told her to call her the second she'd get it work, then promised her again she'd do the same the moment Giles would contact her before she hung up, the demon putting her phone back on the table next to herself afterwards and focusing on the laptop again, grumbling as she attacked the keys once more.

While she worked, ignoring how her eye started to water from the strain of staring at the screen, she found herself thinking again and again of her partner, asking herself if she was alright and if perhaps, those men were doing horrid things to her while she was wasting time with the stupid program; and just as her mind started drifting to those gruesome images again, everything happened at once, the program beating and showing the location of Willow's phone on the map while her own phone started to ring, the display now telling her what she had been hoping for, namely that Derek was finally calling her back.

"Hey", she greeted him, giving her best to sound friendly and not annoyed or upset, even though she already had told him in her voicemail message that it was an emergency, "thanks for calling me back."

"No prob", the young shapeshifter gave back, "what happened? You said something about an emergency?"

"Yes", Pat gave back, deciding that there was no need to beat around the bush, not with him, "Willow's been kidnapped, and we have reason to think that the ones who did it are out to harm our child."

"Your child", Derek echoed, momentarily sounding surprised – before he regained his composure surprisingly fast, earning himself some extra credit with the demon, speaking on hurriedly, before she could try to explain. "I guess you can explain that one later, you're gonna need a wolf to track them, or her, right? I'll have Alexia on the way to you within the hour."

"…wow", the demon gave back after needing a moment to handle this quick offer of support and help, without any further questions asked, "alright… thanks… that's kinda quick, you know."

"You're Friends of the Pack", Derek replied, as if this simple answer was enough as an explanation – and for him, Pat figured, it probably was, the taller woman well aware of how highly valued the Friends of the Pack were there, "you need help, you'll get it. Alexia is one of our best trackers, she'll either find Willow, those men who took her, or both."

"Thank you", Pat gave back with a sigh of relief, "wait, I'll tell you where she should meet us… I used a tracking program to find her phone, and it located it, let me give you the address…"

"Alright", Derek gave back, "just let me get something to… Okay, there we go. Spill."

Quickly, the demon told him the location the program had spat out in response, and he hurriedly wrote it down; then, he reassured her that Alexia would meet them there within the hour, and she thanked him once more before she told him she had to call Buffy now, the young man wishing them good luck with the whole situation before he ended the call.

While she called Buffy back, she was already on the way out, taking the time to grab a sword on the way out, just in case; and the moment the Slayer had taken the call, Pat was giving her the address and told her that Alexia would meet them there, the blonde reassuring her that she'd be there as fast as possible as well, a slight smirk on the demon's face as she left the apartment, suddenly sure that soon, everything would be alright again.


	8. Chapter 8

Just as Derek had promised, Alexia was waiting at the location Pat had given the young Alpha; and to the demon's surprise, the young woman wasn't nearly as bubbly and talkative as usual, appearing decidedly sombre and worried, even giving her a hug the moment she had come close enough to let her do so.

"I'm sure Willow will be okay", she then told the taller woman, nodding as if to underline her words, "we'll find her and she'll be just fine!"

"Yes", Pat agreed at once, not allowing herself to think of any other possibility about the witch's well-being, "I don't know how much Derek told you, but I used a program to track her phone and according to this, it's somewhere around here. So we should start looking once Buffy arrives."

"Yes", Alexia gave back, already glancing around; fighting down the urge to do the same, the demon lit up a cigarette, then remembered that the shapeshifters weren't all too keen on the smell of cigarette smoke and moved a few steps away, prompting the smaller woman to give her a brief, grateful look.

To the relief of both of them, it only took a few more minutes until Buffy arrived, joining them just as the black haired woman finished her cigarette; she hurried up to the two women, taking the time to give the demon a reassuring look before she asked if they had found anything yet.

"No", Pat was the one to answer that, "we figured we'd better wait for you to arrive, as well. According to the tracking program thingy on her laptop, Willow's phone should be around here somewhere, though…"

As if on cue, they all looked around, trying to figure out if the witch was held in some of the buildings nearby; then, Pat seemed to remember that a shapeshifter with an exceptionally good sense of smell was part of their small party and dug out the shirt she had brought it along, holding it out to the shapeshifter.

"This is the shirt she's been wearing to sleep for the last few nights", she added while Alexia took the piece of clothing from her, "so it should smell a lot like her. Think you can track her with this?"

"Of course", Alexia replied at once, to her obvious relief, "good thinking in bringing that…"

"Yeah, well", the demon shrugged in response, "I figured it'd be helpful, just in case the phone thing doesn't work out…"

"And we should start looking for the phone now", Buffy threw in before the shapeshifter could reply something to that, "maybe, if she's in one of those buildings here, we won't need that shirt after all. No offense, Alexia, but I'd prefer that."

"Me too", Alexia reassured her, smiling weakly; after brief discussion, it was settled that the three of them would search together, just in case the men who had taken the redhead were more dangerous than they thought right now, none of them speaking much as they set off to the closest building, the only noise being the shapeshifter's deep breaths as she tried to catch Willow's scent.

"Anything?" Buffy finally broke the silence while they peered in through one of the abandoned building's broken windows; shaking her head, Alexia gave her an apologetic look, but before she could say something, Pat let out a grumble next to her, pointing out something both Buffy and the brunette had missed moments later.

"No one's been in there for a while", she let them know, gesturing at the window, "just look at all the dust and dirt on the ground. No footprints there."

"Good catch", Buffy admitted, finding it hard to believe that she had missed this; in response, Pat just shrugged, hating to feel so helpless as she turned away from the window, without a true idea where her partner, her _fiancée,_ had been taken, and what the ones who had taken her where doing to her in this very moment.

Fighting down the urge to light another smoke, the black haired woman took a few steps down the street, with the intention to move on the next building; and that was when a glint to her right caught her eye, and she frowned slightly, ignoring both Buffy and Alexia calling out to her as she crossed the street and hurried to where the object was glinting in the sun, suddenly knowing with cold dread what it was.

Still, she had a few seconds to hope that maybe, it might be a bottle or a soda can or something equally unimportant and harmless; then, she had reached the glint, and her heart skipped a beat as her gaze fell on the phone lying close to the street, the display shattered and the back of it broken, as well, showing that it had not simply fallen out of the redhead's pocket, but most likely had been tossed there.

"Dammit all to Hell", she brought out in a toneless voice which made it quite obvious to Buffy and Alexia what she had found, even before she bent down and picked the phone up, then turned to show them; not sure what to respond, all the Slayer could do was stare at it for a moment, her gaze moving up again afterwards and meeting the demon's.

"They threw it out", Pat told her before she could say anything, in the same strangely flat and toneless voice, "they must have taken her God knows where in a car or something and they threw out her phone."

"We can still track her", Buffy gave back, even though she wasn't as sure about that anymore, not if the witch had been taken away by car; she exchanged one look with Alexia, to her dismay seeing similar doubt on the other woman's face – and then Pat let out a growl and, with such force that it shocked both other women, threw the phone away, clenching her fists afterwards, her breathing fast and heavy now as she fought to stay in control.

"Hey", the blonde said the first thing which came to her mind after a moment, taking a step closer to her even though she wasn't so sure it was a good idea, the smoke which was rising from the demon's fists showing how close she was to flaming up and perhaps, however unintentionally, hurting her, "don't freak out on us now, you know we'll find her and it'll be alright…"

"How?!" Pat snapped at her in response, finally turning to look at her, and nearly making her take a step back with the anger and the bright red glow which had filled her good eye, "how do you think we'll find her now?! They drove God knows where with her, for all we know, they could have left the fucking state by now, and how do you think Alexia can track her now, if she's been in a damned car!"

"She's right", Alexia had to admit, giving them an unhappy look, "I would have been able to track her if she'd been nearby, but if she was in a car, with other people…"

"The coven is working on it, too, though", Buffy pointed out in reply, in an attempt to convince herself as much as the other two, "I'm sure they'll come up with something, if they all work together, they'll find out where she is and they promised to tell Giles the moment they found something…"

Realizing that she was close to babbling, she forced herself to shut up, not sure what else to say; swallowing heavily, the demon ran both hand through her hair, a hint of bitterness in her voice when she asked if all they could do for now was wait, then.

"…yes", Buffy mumbled in response, even though she hated to do so, "I wish I could tell you different, but we can't just search the town at random, you know that, we don't even know if she's still in town or if they took her somewhere else…"

"I should have gone after her", the black haired woman brought out, now back to the toneless sound which worried Buffy much more than her anger had, "if I just had gone to look what is taking her so long…"

"She'll be okay", the blonde gave back, daring to place one hand on her shoulder now that her fists had stopped smoking and she didn't look as if she'd burst into flames any second anymore, "we'll find her, and she'll be okay, I promise…"

In response, Pat just looked back at her for a few moments, then her shoulders slumped and she let out a heavy breath; instead of saying anything though, she simply turned and walked off, heading into the direction of the home she shared with Willow, Buffy and Alexia exchanging a worried look before they hurried after her, both of them silently wondering how much longer the demon would be able to keep it together, how close to the edge she was – and what might happen once she'd lose her self control.


	9. Chapter 9

To the surprise of both Buffy and Pat, Alexia declared that she'd stay once they had reached the apartment; even though so far, her tracking skills hadn't been of much use, they both had figured that now, with finding Willow by scent being pretty much out of the question, she'd return to the Pack, the young woman shaking her head vehemently when the Slayer was the one to articulate that assumption.

"Perhaps I can still help once that coven found something out", Alexia then explained why she was staying, "or my tracking skills will be useful after all. Also, Derek and I decided I'd help you guys until Willow's been found, as best as I can. She's Friend of the Pack, and we don't let our friends down."

"…thanks", Pat mumbled after taking a few moments to make sure the sudden onrush of gratitude wouldn't make her voice tremble or even crack, "that… means much, and I'm sure you can help…"

"I'll give my best", Alexia reassured her, once again surprisingly solemn, in a stark contrast to how she usually behaved, "I know how strong the bond between her and you is, I already noticed the first time we met…"

"Yeah, when you suddenly stood in our bedroom and then asked how often we mate", the demon gave back, with a wry smile; smiling brightly, clearly still not seeing anything wrong with that, the shapeshifter nodded, and for a few seconds, all three of them smiled, before they all once more realized that a close friend and loved one was still in undefined danger and that this was no time for jokes or fond memories.

"Where are you staying?" Buffy wanted to know as they stopped in front of the apartment door, "if you want to, you can stay at my house, or here at Pat's if you prefer, you know you don't need to go to a hotel, right?"

"Thank you", Alexia smiled in reply, "going to a hotel wouldn't have been a problem, but I appreciate the offer and it might be wiser if we stayed all together, just in case a new development comes up with we have to act quickly."

"Good point", Buffy nodded at once, taking the chance given by those words to make a suggestion which had been on her mind for a while now, ever since she had realized how much of a toll the whole situation was taking from Pat, "maybe we should all stay at my house, then, you too, Pat, just in case."

"I know what you're doing", the taller woman told her in response, the blonde having the grace to blush slightly, "but I appreciate it, so thanks. And yeah, we should all stay together, just in case Giles calls… and, honestly, the thought of sitting up there alone…"

"Not a good one, I know", the Slayer gave back, briefly and reassuringly touching her arm again; smiling back weakly at her, the demon nodded, then let them know that she'd just get a few things and would be right back, earning a nod from both Buffy and Alexia.

"Bring a weapon", Buffy advised while the black haired woman was unlocking the door, "we might need it once the coven calls and tells us where they took Willow."

"Wait", Alexia suddenly snapped, in an urgent whisper, stepping closer to Pat and grabbing her arm, keeping her from entering the apartment, "something's wrong… I can smell something…"

"What?" the demon murmured back, automatically keeping her voice down as well; in response, Alexia took in a deep breath, then frowned, glancing at the taller woman afterwards, her reply immediately making her tense up. "A scent which is neither yours, nor Willow's… Someone's in there. It's fresh."

"Let me go first", Buffy hurriedly said, before Pat could get the idea to storm into the apartment, "if it's one of those guys, or some other human, you know you can't hurt them."

"…fine", Pat grumbled, both Buffy and she ignoring the confused look Alexia threw them; the blonde gave her friend another reassuring look, then moved past her and into the small anteroom behind the door, holding her breath as she almost expected someone to jump out at her and attack her.

When nothing happened, she moved on, with the demon and Alexia right behind her; and the moment she stepped into the living room, the man waiting there for her brought up the strangely bulky gun he was holding, his eyes widening in surprise for a second when he saw that the one he was aiming at wasn't the woman he had come for.

That one second of surprise of hesitation had been all Buffy had needed; catapulting herself forward, she shot towards him, diving beneath his line of fire, the gun going off with a surprisingly low _plop_ sound, the projectile whizzing over her head and past her. She had a second to hope that it hadn't hit Pat or Alexia, then she was tackling the man; and clearly, her strength was surprising him, a low grunt coming from him as he lost his footing and fell, his grunting followed by a pained cry when she grabbed his arm and twisted it, forcing him to let go of the gun.

"You're not the one I came for", he brought out, to her surprise not trying to fight, but simply lying there, "just let me get up and we can…"

Pat stepped into his line of sight and he fell quiet, his eyes widening yet again, a yelp coming from him moments later when Buffy gave his arm another twist, sharp pain racing up all the way to his shoulder.

"You're here for her, aren't you", the blonde snarled, making the demon frown while Alexia stayed in the background, just watching, "why? You one of the guys who took Willow?"

"No", he gave back at once, noticing how Pat's frown deepened, "I'm not… one of them, I… they hired me…"

"Who are they", the demon now spoke up for the first time, "and where is she?"

In response, the man just shook his head; for a moment, Buffy considered to give his arm one more twist, but before she could do so, a familiar _foomph_ came up next to her, flames flickering in the corner of her eyes as the demon clenched her fist, making sure that the man could see the fire and that it was originating from her skin and not some sort of parlour trick.

"Talk", she snarled, with a distinctive growl in her voice that made the guy look as if he was close to peeing himself, clearly not having had a real idea about the true nature of his target, "or I won't just show you those flames."

"I don't know", he brought out, clearly not doubting her words, "I don't know, alright? I'm not one of them, they just hired me!"

"Obviously they didn't know much about you", Buffy commented, looking at the demon, "if they send just one guy to kidnap you."

"They didn't think there'd be a need for a fight", Alexia now spoke up for the first time, having picked up the gun and holding it up for emphasis, "that's not a regular gun, it's a tranquilizer gun. We have those too in the Pack, in case one of us goes wild…"

"You were waiting for her", Buffy realized, glaring at their captive, "and you were planning to knock her out with that the moment she'd come inside. And then what?"

"Don't let her burn me", the man brought out in response, how with an audible tremble in his voice, "please, I'll tell you all I know, just don't let her burn me, okay?"

"Talk and you won't get burned", the Slayer gave back coldly, not bothered by the fact that this was a regular human; after all, he had connections to the men who had taken Willow, and for the moment, he was their best chance to find out where the witch was being held captive.

"I was supposed to take her out of town", he mumbled, glancing at the demon fearfully, the flames still dancing on her hand, reminding him of what she was capable of, "they told me where to meet them, they would have taken it from there and I'd get my pay, that's all I know…"

"It's not", Pat growled, making him flinch, "you're not telling us everything. Where were you supposed to take me? Did they give you instructions for the… delivery?"

"There's a bag behind the couch", the man gave back a few heartbeats later, "they gave it to me, said I had to use what's in it to… restrain you… They said the tranquilizer from the gun should keep you down, but just in case… And then they wanted me to drive her out of town, to the rest stop, you know, the one at the highway…"

"Get that bag", Buffy told Alexia in response, making her nod before she got moving; it didn't take her long to find the bag and bring it back to them, a quick sniff telling her that nothing explosive was inside it before she opened it, grimacing at the contents.

"Looks like they gave him everything he needs", she then commented, reaching into the bag and lifting a pair of handcuffs from it; frowning as well, Buffy glanced into the bag, not surprised to see wads of cloth for gagging and blindfolding inside it, once more glad that they'd had Alexia with them when they had come here and had been warned that something was amiss.

"When were you supposed to deliver me to that rest stop", Pat now wanted to know, giving him another glare, "I assume they wouldn't just wait there all day."

"Midnight", the man mumbled in response, still sounding frightened even though by now, the flames had vanished, "they said that should be more than enough time, and that the tranquilizer should keep you out long enough…"

"…I have a plan", the demon muttered at Buffy, "not a very good one, but probably the best shot we got for now."

"Oh no", Buffy protested, immediately figuring out what the taller woman was planning, "are you kidding? That's not even close to 'not a very good one', that's way too dangerous."

"It's the only chance we have for now", Pat argued back, "and you know that, we can't just wait around if the coven finds something and calls us, who knows what they are doing to her right this minute! We don't have a choice!"

"…I know", Buffy had to admit after a moment, "but… What if this goes wrong? Then both of you will be in danger!"

"But she'll have me there to protect her", the taller woman replied at once; and after a few more moments, Buffy let out a sigh, then nodded, her gaze focusing on the man again afterwards, her voice and steely glare making it more than clear that, if he wanted all his bones to remain intact and not end up beaten to a pulp in the police station for attempting a kidnapping, he'd do what they told him, making him nod immediately, both Buffy and Alexia still thinking that it was a bad idea, but knowing that Pat was right and that they didn't have much of another chance to find Willow.


	10. Chapter 10

It was five minutes to midnight when the car pulled into the rest stop, and as the man had predicted, they were already waiting, two men in black, one of them still in the car, the other standing next to it, his arms crossed over his chest, indifference in his gaze as he watched the car of the man they had hired pull up and stop close to theirs.

"You are on time", he said as a greeting when the hired man got out of the car, "punctuality is a virtue. Did you accomplish your task?"

"Yes", he replied, keeping his gaze focused on the ground, "just as you wanted, in the backseat."

"Get her out", the other man replied, making the hired hand nod in response; he moved to the back door of the car and opened it, then reached in and, with some grunting, pulled Pat out, the demon hanging limply in his grip, her wrists cuffed behind her, both the gag and the blindfold firmly in place.

"You were right", he mumbled while the man in black took her from him, bending down slightly so he could throw her over his shoulder, "the tranquilizer kept her knocked out the whole time, and she went down really fast after it hit her."

"Good", the man replied, "just let me put her in the car and then you'll receive your payment."

"What are you gonna do with her?" he dared to ask in response, the man in black merely raising an eyebrow at him though; without bothering to answer any other way, he turned away from him and moved back to his car, dumping the black haired woman on the backseat rather unceremoniously before he got out the briefcase and held it out to the hired kidnapper.

"What we plan with her is none of your business", he told him while he took the briefcase and opened it, glancing at the bills stacked inside, "rest assured though that what we do, we do for the Lord and the good of mankind."

"Um, okay", the man gave back, snapping the briefcase shut again and putting it on the passenger seat of his car, "good luck with that, then. And if anything goes wrong, you know we've never met before."

"Of course", the man in black reassured him, "but nothing will go wrong. The Lord guides our steps in this difficult task."

"Good for you", he replied, not sounding all too impressed; to his surprise, the man in black gave him a slight smile, then turned and walked back to the car, entering the passenger seat, his companion starting the engine the second the door slammed shut, the hired man letting out a heavy breath as they drove off.

"Good job", Buffy commented as she threw off the blanket beneath which she had hidden behind the driver's seat, Alexia behind the passenger seat doing the same, "and now follow them. And make sure they don't notice we're there."

"Yes", he mumbled, getting into the driver's seat while Buffy climbed in the passenger one and Alexia sat in the back, "our agreement still stands, right? After I took you wherever they are taking her, you'll just let me go and I can keep the money?"

"Yes", the Slayer replied, rolling her eyes, "just drive now, before we lose them. Or the other part of our agreement, the one about us doing awful things to you, will be the one we'll hold up."

"Yes, yes", the kidnapper gave back, his hand trembling slightly when he started the engine; keeping the lights out so the car would be harder to notice, he followed the vehicle of the two men, keeping a safe distance, the ride happening in complete silence as he was focused on not losing the object of their pursue and the Slayer and the shapeshifter were deep in thought, wondering where they would end up and if they would find Willow there.

* * *

When the guy had pulled her out of the car and whoever was there to pick her up had thrown her over his shoulder like a sack of flour, it had taken almost all of Pat's willpower to not kick him in the nuts then and there; to her relief though, she'd been put in the car fairly quickly, and playing the unconscious kidnapping victim was definitely easier now that she was in the backseat, giving her best to keep her breathing slow and calm and to keep up the act of being unconscious.

To her dismay, the men didn't speak to each other during the drive, thus not giving away any of their plans or their motivation for having her kidnapped, as well, now; instead, they were completely silent the whole drive, not even the radio playing, something which forced the demon to focus on her breathing even more since it was all too audible in the quiet car, even over the hum of the engine.

Finally, after what seemed like quite the long drive, the car came to a stop and the engine was killed; she momentarily tensed up when she heard the men get out of the vehicle, then forced herself to relax again as the back door opened and she was pulled out of the car, giving her best to hang limply in the grip both men now had on her, her feet dragging over the ground as they started moving away from the car.

"Wait", one of them said just as she heard a door open, her heart skipping a beat at his next words and causing her to wonder if they had realized that they had been followed, "something's wrong. What's that smell?"

Now that he had said this, Pat smelled it too, the metallic smell of blood, along with other, just as unpleasant odours; and a second later, they just let go of her and she fell to the ground, the low grunt which escaped her unnoticed by them, muffled by their footsteps as they hurried away from her.

Hoping that this wasn't some kind of ruse and that they weren't just waiting for her to show that she was awake, she quickly got rid of the handcuffs, an easy task since they hadn't been properly closed around her wrists, then ripped off the gag and the blindfold, fighting down the urge to just rush into the building after the men – after all, she didn't know what might await her in there, and if she'd need Buffy and Alexia as back-up, especially with her current inability to hit any human beings.

To her relief, it took barely a minute for the kidnapper's car to arrive there, Buffy and Alexia jumping out the moment it had come to a halt; they clearly were surprised to see her standing outside, and she hurriedly explained what had happened, the surprise of both women turning into concern at her words.

"Let's hope this is not what I think it is", Buffy was the one to say it out loud, "if they managed to make her go dark…"

"…then they paid", Pat gave back, clearly not all too perturbed by the thought of her lover's kidnappers having been killed by her, "but we better go and find out what this really is about, those two guys sounded really worried."

Nodding, Buffy was the first to get moving, followed by the demon and the shapeshifter; they hurried through the still open door, down a rather long hallway, the smell of blood growing stronger with every step they took, until they found themselves in what apparently had been the room the kidnappers mainly had used for whatever they had been doing there.

Now though, the room had been turned into a slaughterhouse; there were dead bodies everywhere, torn up and broken in horrific ways, bad enough to even make Buffy's stomach turn, despite all the horrible things she had seen ever since she had been called as the Slayer, her breath momentarily getting caught in her throat as she tried to figure out who or what had done this to the men.

In her shock, she almost missed the fact that the two who had taken Pat to the building where standing just a few feet away, staring with wide eyes as well, not having noticed the three women yet; then one of them got moving again, past all the dead people on the ground, and to a heavy steel door at the back of the room, nearly jerking it open, a groan coming from him as he revealed the room behind it – and the empty cage standing there, the gate torn off the hinges and several of the bars badly bent.

"She's gone", he then brought out, turning to look at his companion, "they're all dead and…" He finally noticed the women in the room, and his eyes went wide; before he could yell a warning though, Pat had stepped up to his still shell-shocked partner and, ignoring the chip in her brain, smacked him on the back of the head as hard as she could, knocking him out instantly, a success she didn't notice though as immediately, blinding pain rushed through her head and she screamed, nearly going down to her knees as well.

"How…" the one still standing man started, then fell silent as the man lying closest to him turned out to be not quite as dead as they all had thought, groaning and grabbing for his leg; and moments later, all three women were moving, Buffy effortlessly knocking out the one uninjured guy still left while Pat and Alexia focused on the dreadfully hurt, but still alive man on the ground.

"What happened here", Pat demanded to know, fighting the urge to grab his shirt and shake him, "and where's Willow? Answer me!"

"Attacked", the man panted in response, blood trickling from his mouth and making it obvious that he didn't have much longer, "couldn't… fight back…"

"Is that where you kept her?" the demon snapped at him in response, gesturing at the room with the cage, "who attacked you? And where is she now? Did they take her?"

In response, he only let out another groan, and now, she gave in to the urge and did grab him, unable to keep her voice down as she jerked him up, ignoring it when Alexia grabbed her shoulder in an attempt to calm her down.

"Who attacked you, and where is she?!" Pat almost yelled at him, shaking him now after all, "did they take her? Answer me, damn you, or I'll finish you off myself!"

"Demons", the man brought out, his breath coming in fast and hectic gasps now, "demons, and yes… they took her… They took her, we failed… we failed…"

He let out a mixture of groan and cough, his eyes rolling back into his head; his body went limp as he took his last breath, and, as the realization that he had died and couldn't tell them anything else hit home, Pat let go of him, running both hands through her hair as she tried to make sense of all of this, asking herself who these men had been and who had Willow in their grasp now – and how close they actually had been to getting her out, how many minutes too late they had arrived to stop all of this and reunite her with the woman she loved.


	11. Chapter 11

"He told the truth", Alexia confirmed a minute later, standing in the small room with the cage now, "Willow was here, not all too long ago, I can still smell her scent despite the blood and everything. Perhaps, if these demons who took her didn't use a car, as well, I can track her now."

"Good", Pat mumbled, still sitting on the ground next to the now dead man who had given them that newest information, while Buffy was handcuffing one of the two men who had led them there, then moved on to the other one up with his belt, "now we just need to figure out what the Hell is going on."

"I'm sure this nice guy will be able to help us with that", Buffy gave back, jerking the man she just had finished tying up to his feet since his groans showed he was waking up again, "and, if demons did this, at least we know she didn't go dark and isn't on a rampage somewhere out there now."

"Yeah, that's something", the demon grumbled, finding her cigarettes and lighting one of them up, causing Alexia to wrinkle her nose and take a few steps away from her, "and he better have some answers, or I'll burn him, chip or no chip."

Clearly, the man had woken up enough to react to that, since he let out a startled noise; Buffy shook him slightly in response, her voice cold when she addressed him, his fear showing in his eyes when he finally forced them open and looked at her.

"You heard her", Buffy let him know, keeping a tight grip on him to make sure he wouldn't try to run off, "spill. Who are you, and why have you taken Willow?"

When he didn't answer immediately, Pat let one hand flame up and took a threatening step closer to him; he gulped in response, then finally did speak, his voice trembling just enough to let the three women notice.

"We are doing the work of the Lord", he told them, prompting Buffy and Pat to exchange a look, "for the good of mankind."

"Tell me how it's for the good of mankind to kidnap my fiancée and plan to harm our unborn child", the demon demanded to know in response, with a distinctive growl in her voice that made him flinch, "how exactly are you doing the work of the Lord? You from some sect or something?"

"No", he snapped, for the first time showing an emotion other than fear as he glared at her, not impressing her though, "how dare you, you of all people, you hellspawn! We're from the church, sent by the pope himself!"

"The pope", Buffy repeated, startled, the taller woman raising an eyebrow as well, "why would the pope care about this? And how would he even know?"

"The Vatican keeps track of all supernatural beings and events", the man replied, now sounding a bit more self-secure, "we are well aware of how often you've saved lives and even this world, but even considering all your accomplishments, we cannot let this child see the light of day."

"Why not?" Pat demanded to know, still eager to get an answer for that question, no matter how dumb it might be, "because she's a witch and I'm a demon? Because it's literally _ours_ and not conceived by regular means? Spit it out!"

"It has been prophesied", the man replied, now holding her gaze, his fear apparently gone as he sounded much more confident, "a child, conceived by unnatural means, by a witch and a demon. You weren't high on our suspect list, seeing you're both female, but now that it has happened, we will not allow this child to be born. And we will never stop until we're sure it is gone."

" _Why?!"_ the taller woman snapped at him, raising her voice yet again and prompting Alexia to give her a worried look, "why the Hell would you kill an unborn child? Why?"

"Because", the man replied, still holding her gaze and showing no fear at all anymore now, "this child will bring forth the end of the world. It will be the Antichrist."

* * *

"What", Pat brought out in a toneless voice while all Buffy and Alexia could do was stare, "what did you just say?"

"You heard me", the man bravely replied, his voice tearing the Slayer out of her shock enough to make her realize that her grip on him had loosened, prompting her to tighten it slightly again, something he didn't even seem to notice though, "your child will be the Antichrist, and bring death and destruction to the world. Born from evil, there is nothing you will be able to do about it."

"It was not born from evil", Buffy was the one to answer that, making him look at her again, "don't you know that, if you know everything which goes on here? It was conceived when Pat gave up her immortality so the Goddess Hecate could use it to bring Willow back!"

"It is the spawn of a witch and a demon", the man spat in response, "and the prophecy has been quite clear on what this child will become, if it is allowed to live. We might have lost her for now, but we will find the witch again, and end this pregnancy before this creature is born."

"If you call our child a creature once more, I'll rip out your tongue", Pat told him rather casually, managing to put a hint of fear in his eyes again, "and if you're so keen on making sure this child isn't born, tell me, why not just get a gun and shoot her in the face when you had her attacked in that restroom?"

"We are not out to kill her", the man replied, "but even if we were, it wouldn't be so easy. As you surely have been told, this child will share powers from her and you, and as long as it is within her, she shares them, as well. If we'd shoot her, she'd just heal it, the way you are capable of healing injuries, our plan was to weaken her first, her and the child, and once they'd both be weak enough…"

"I've heard enough of this", Pat growled, cutting him off, "Buffy, knock him back out, and then Alexia can track Willow and figure out where these demons have taken her."

"We'll never stop", the man snarled in reply, as if to make sure he was hammering that point home, "even if you find her now, and those demons didn't kill her yet, like they killed all of my friends, we'll never stop, we'll come back and make sure…"

Having enough of this as well, Buffy smacked him in the back of the head, hard enough to knock him out again; and before he even hit the ground, Alexia was already moving to the door, having picked up the witch's scent, sniffing audibly in an attempt to make sure she was following the right one.

"Wouldn't it be easier to do this in your wolf form?" Buffy wanted to know as Pat and she caught up to her; shrugging, Alexia briefly glanced at them, then focused on her tracking again, sounding slightly absent-minded when she replied. "It might be, but my wolf form will be too fast for the two of you to keep up. If they didn't take her all too long ago, which they probably didn't, seeing how fresh the blood in there was, it shouldn't make too much of a difference."

"Let's hope you're right", Pat mumbled, making the shapeshifter nod; then, she got moving again, Buffy and the demon following her in silence, the words of the man still weighing heavily on their minds as they both wondered if he had been right and if their child would be born evil – or if there was something they could do against it, simply by providing a loving family for the child, and by making sure to raise the boy or girl in a way that wouldn't lead to the child abusing the powers it already had now, before birth, for the darkness the man had been speaking about.


	12. Chapter 12

At least, it seemed as if they'd be lucky for once, the trail leading them out of the building and into the woods nearby; Alexia kept up the rather loud sniffing as she followed it, grimacing every now and then, explaining once at Buffy's questioning look that the demons who had taken Willow were smelling exceptionally bad.

"They almost mask her scent", she then added, taking in another deep breath, "but it's there, I can smell it, it's definitely her…"

"Good", Pat grumbled, "keep it up then, we better find her quick, you saw what those demons did to the guys in there…"

"What do they want with her", Buffy pondered out loud, exchanging a look with the taller woman while Alexia kept focusing on following the trail, "those guys kidnapped her to weaken her first and then kill the kid, as that guy said, but why would demons go there and take her? If they wanted her dead, why not kill her there? Assuming they don't know about the healing thing, and we're not even sure that's true."

"I don't care why they took her", Pat gave back, not really surprising her, "the only thing I care about is that they didn't kill her, and that we get her out of there before they do. Maybe, if we don't kill them all, we can question one of them after we got her to safety."

"Sounds like a plan", Buffy nodded, "so please try to leave one of them alive? It's bad enough that some crazy guys from the church are after Willow and the baby, but if demons are after the child, as well, now…"

"I prefer demons", Pat dryly replied, keeping her gaze on Alexia as she kept leading them through the woods, "cause I can hurt and kill those."

"Shht", Alexia suddenly hissed, before Buffy had the chance to reply anything to that, "the scent has gotten much stronger, we must be close…"

"I don't see anything where they could hide", the Slayer gave back, frowning, "not even a cave or something, are you sure that…"

She trailed off when she heard Alexia take in a sharp breath, stopping her walk so suddenly that Buffy nearly ran into her; and moments later, Buffy saw what had made her stop, her eyes briefly widening while next to her, Pat finally spotted it as well and let out a strangled noise.

"No, goddammit, no", the black haired woman was the first one to break the shocked silence, pushing past the Slayer and the shapeshifter to where the dead demon laid on the ground, halfway on top of what looked like torn clothes, clothes she recognized as Willow's with just one glance, "no! _No!"_

"They tricked us", Alexia brought out, in a voice which was barely above a whisper, "they left that one here, with her clothes, to trick us…"

"…and to trap us", Buffy finished for her as the woods around them rustled and a dozen demons were surrounding them all at once; in response, the shapeshifter dropped down on all fours and, with an audible growl, started her change, going through it with surprising speed, something the blonde would have found fascinating in other circumstances, but couldn't pay much attention to right now.

In front of her, Pat let out a growl as well, clenching her fists as she began her own change; just like Alexia, she pushed it this time, finishing much quicker than usual, and just as she toned down her flames, not wanting to set the woods on fire, the demons attacked in perfect unison, splitting up into three groups of four, each of them taking one of the women.

Not wasting any time, Alexia used her wolf form well, hamstringing the first of the demons to reach her and sending him down with a pained yelp, his feet giving in beneath him; a few feet away from her, Pat greeted the first one by slamming a burning first straight into his chest and sending him a few feet back again, while Buffy ducked the first punch aimed at her and retaliated with a sweep kick, taking one of them down, as well.

"Don't let them gang up on you", she pressed out as she moved slightly, making sure that she could keep an eye on her group of demons and simultaneously cover Pat's blind left side; the only answer she got from her two companions were low snarls, followed by awful wet ripping noises as Alexia jumped one of the demons and tore out his throat.

Another one tried to grab her from behind, but before he could wrap his arms around her, he found himself in a tight hold instead, having a second to realize that the fire demon had grabbed him – before he was sent flying, hitting another one of his comrades and going down.

Not giving them the chance to get back up, Pat catapulted herself forward, landing on the demon on top; a quick grab and twist broke his neck, and, without bothering to throw the dead body aside, she took hold of the demon still trapped beneath his now dead comrade and her own weight, then slammed his head down as hard as she could, a satisfying _crack_ reaching her ears, the demon shuddering once before he laid still.

With a horrible snarl that showed off her now sharpened and lengthened teeth, Pat turned away from the two demons she had killed, eager to take on a third; just as her gaze landed on him though, his fist shot towards her face, too fast for her to duck, and she had to take the punch, ending up thrown backwards and off the two dead bodies, hitting the ground hard enough to make her teeth rattle.

Before she had the chance to get to her feet again, or even to sit up, the demon who had punched her was on top of her, snarling down on her as his hands closed around her throat; his thumbs found her windpipe and he pressed down, a gurgle coming from her as he cut off her flow of air.

As if that wasn't enough, another demon moved up to them and started kicking her, the sharp claws he had instead of toenails tearing deep gashes into her side; they healed up against almost immediately, but even her healing powers didn't help her with being choked, the world blurring as she fought to stay conscious.

Just when she thought that she couldn't take it anymore, that she'd black out and that the demon would simply choke her to death, a loud growl came from her left, followed by Alexia shooting into her line of sight and crashing into the demon choking her, with enough force to make him let go, giving Pat the chance to suck in a deep lungful of air, air which left her again in a series of harsh coughs, something which didn't stop her from grabbing the other demon's leg again when he tried to kick her once more and giving a powerful jerk, making him fall.

"Coward", she snarled at him as she moved on top of him, giving him just a second to stare at her defiantly before she broke his neck, as well; and not even a minute later, Buffy took down the last standing demon, letting out a heavy breath as she relaxed, taking a moment to look at the carnage around them.

"They played us", she then grumbled, glaring at the corpses, "they must have known we have someone who tracks by smell and they left this here… They set us up…"

"How could they know?!" Pat snapped in response, coming to her feet again and hurriedly changing back, prompting Alexia to do the same, now that the danger was over, "she's not even been here for a day!"

"I don't know", Buffy had to admit, looking on uneasily as the demon knelt down next to the clothes of her partner and picked them up; at least, they both told themselves, it was just her blouse and pants and shoes, with no underwear in sight, giving them the small relief that at least, the demons weren't dragging her around completely naked.

"Can you still track her", Pat finally spoke up again, looking at Alexia, the deadly calm in her voice somehow making it worse than it would have been if she had yelled and raged; in response, the shapeshifter took in a deep breath, then nodded, setting off again without another word, the Slayer and the demon following her a moment later, the taller woman still so frighteningly calm, making Buffy wonder once more how much of her feelings she was hiding – and how much longer they had before she'd lose control of them.


	13. Chapter 13

Clearly, the demons who had taken Willow had made the best of the time they had won with the diversion and the attack; it took Alexia almost an hour until she finally found the house to which the witch's scent led her, a run-down wooden building which perhaps, decades ago, had been used as a summer retreat by some wealthy family, almost big enough to count as a mansion.

"I'm surprised they're not in a cave", Buffy mumbled, glancing around as she wondered if no guards had been put up, "don't demons prefer those? Present demons excluded, of course."

"Apparently, those don't", Pat grumbled, her tense muscles showing that she was on high alert, as well, "and why are there no guards? Shouldn't they have someone out here to make sure we don't get in?"

"Perhaps they want us to get in", Alexia shrugged in reply, giving the house another critical look, "maybe it's a trap."

"Wouldn't put it past them, seeing they had one set up already back there", the demon grumbled, then surprised Buffy by cracking her knuckles, a look of determination hardening her face as she kept staring at the house, as if she could get some answers by just looking hard enough.

"I'm going in", she announced before Buffy or Alexia could say something, "wait out here in case it's another trap, follow me if you hear sounds of fighting."

"You're not going in there alone", Buffy protested at once, "we're coming with you."

"No", Pat replied without missing a beat, looking at her again and nearly making her step back at the cold steel in her good eye, "I'm going alone. For now. I might have to move quietly, find out where they keep her, and we all know I have the best skills for that."

"Skills you haven't made use of in a while", Buffy argued back, "and what if it's a trap and you get captured?"

"Then you'll be out here to get me back out", Pat shrugged in response, "and I doubt I forgot any of those… skills. It's like riding a bicycle."

"I'm with Buffy", Alexia finally decided to add her opinion as well, "this is not a good idea. What if you get injured or captured without us noticing? Do you just want us to wait out here for hours, without knowing what is going on, while they perhaps already killed you or are torturing you?"

"If it's a trap, we all go in and get captured, no one will be there to get us out", Pat gave back, "the others don't even know where we are. Remember that disaster with the immortals, Buffy? We really don't need a repeat of that."

"No, we don't", Buffy agreed at once, shuddering as she remembered how easily those men and women had overpowered her, and had tricked the rest, locking them up so the sick torture of the demon could go on until they'd reached their goal of brainwashing her into attacking Willow on sight, something they thankfully hadn't managed, "but as Alexia said, we have no way to know if you're alright in there…"

"Give me two hours", Pat told her after thinking about this for a moment, "even if I have to sneak around assassin style, that should be enough time to find her and get her out. And if they capture me, it shouldn't give them enough time to do some real damage."

They all knew that this wasn't exactly true, that more than enough damage could be done within just one hour of torture, let alone two; still, Buffy nodded after a moment though, knowing that, from the way Pat was had set her jaw and was looking at the house again now, there was no way to stop her from going in alone, except perhaps knocking her out, something the blonde wasn't willing to do.

"Take care", she thus just said, ignoring how Alexia threw her a shocked look, clearly not having expected this agreement, "two hours, as we said. And if you get captured and tortured, I get to tell you 'I told you so', daily for a month, and you can't complain."

"Deal", Pat replied at once, giving her a brief grateful look – before she set off, moving soundlessly closer to the house, making sure to steer clear of the front door and approaching the darkest side of the building instead, Buffy and Alexia retreating slightly into the woods so they wouldn't end up being seen after all.

"Are you sure this was a good idea?" Alexia whispered, giving the Slayer a doubtful look and prompting her to let out a dismayed sigh, a shrug following that noise before she finally gave a proper answer.

"No", she honestly let the shapeshifter know, "but I know her, and when she's like this, the only way to stop her would be knocking her out, so… Let's just hope she knows what she's doing."

"Indeed", Alexia sighed, then fell silent; Buffy just gave another nod before she settled down on the ground, getting as comfortable as she could, knowing that for now, all they could do was wait – either for the two hours to pass so they could go in as well, or for Pat to come back out, ideally with the witch in tow, both of them safe and sound.

* * *

To Pat's relief, she found a rather worn-out looking window at the side of the building she had chosen to sneak up to; holding her breath, she worked her fingers in between the window's frame and the sill, then carefully started applying strength, gritting her teeth when the wood creaked, the sound appearing dreadfully loud in the quiet forest.

Freezing, standing perfectly still, she waited to see if any reaction came in response to the sound; when the house remained quiet though, she continued her efforts, and after some more creaking, the window had been opened far enough to let her squeeze through and get inside.

Quickly, but as quietly as possible, she did so, almost soundlessly dropping to the floor moments later; and almost immediately, she was grateful for the fact that her demonic nature gave her enhanced night vision, making it easier for her to see in the darkness which was dominating the room she had landed in, a small area which she guessed had been used for storage, when the house had still been inhibited.

Soundlessly, the demon moved to the door, pushing the handle down as slowly and quietly as she could; the door swung open, the hinges creaking quite loudly and making her cringe, but again, to her relief, no demons came storming down the hallway the opening of the door had revealed to attack her.

 _Now just to find Willow,_ she thought to herself as she stepped out into the hallway, all her senses up on high alert, _hold on there Sweetie, I'm here and I'll get you out, it'll be okay…_

Pausing for a moment, she glanced down to the right, then to the left, not sure where she should go; then, she settled for left, since this would take her deeper into the house, the storage rooms she had ended up in after her little break-in being located quite close to the front.

Hoping that the floor wouldn't creak too much, or perhaps even break beneath her and send her down into the cellar, the black haired woman slowly moved down the hallway, her muscles so tense that she was mildly surprised she wasn't vibrating; still, she didn't allow herself to relax, keeping up her guard as she reached the hallway's end, a door at the end of it and another hallway leading away to the left.

Peering around the corner, she made sure that no demons were patrolling there, just waiting for her to show up; briefly, she wondered if they somehow had found out that their little ambush hadn't worked, then shrugged it off and moved closer to the door, pressing one ear against it as she tried to figure out if someone was in the room behind it.

Just when she wanted to pull back from the door again, she heard a soft creak behind it, her whole body going stiff as she even held her breath to make as little noise as possible; a short while later, the creak came again, a bit farther away this time, showing her that it most likely was someone moving around in the room, her good eye narrowing as she stepped away from the door, then grabbed the handle and jerked it open.

Upon the noise of the door opening, the demon in the room turned in surprise, but was too slow to react as Pat catapulted herself inside; she had a second to realize that the demon was a female, this time, then she had her pinned against the wall, one hand around her throat, cutting off her flow of air and keeping her from screaming.

"Not a sound if you want to live", the taller woman hissed, tightening her grip slightly when the other demon tried to struggle, "and don't try to break free, or I'll snap your neck like a goddamn twig. Where's Willow?"

To her slight surprise, the threat worked better than she had expected; almost immediately, the other demon froze, a hint of fear in her voice when she replied, her words causing Pat to let out a low growl.

"Your companion is safe, we have not harmed her", she hurriedly told her, "and we do not want to harm her, we are keeping her safe from harm here."

"And that is why you undressed her and set up an ambush for us, isn't it", the taller woman growled, slightly satisfied when the other demon flinched in reply, suddenly sure that, if the greenish tint of her skin had allowed it, she would have had the grace to blush.

"The brothers who attacked you sacrificed themselves", she then tried to explain, earning yet another growl, "so we could take her to this safe haven. They knew that they would get killed, and laid down their lives to honour our clan and protect the child."

"Where is she", Pat growled in response, shaking her slightly, "I don't care about your excuses, take me to her, right now."

"I will", the other demon reassured her in reply, "we mean no harm to any of you, we're on your side. On the side of you and your child… Why do you think we got her out of the hands of these evil men?"

"Just take me to her", Pat grumbled as an answer, with another glare for emphasis, "before I lose my patience and kill you after all."

"Follow me", the female replied, prompting Pat to let go of her and to take a step back; she tensed up, anticipating an attack, but to her surprise, the other demon just moved past her, leading her back to the door, the taller woman clenching her fists as she followed her, ready for an attack any second – and ready to kill them all if they had done harm to her partner after all, despite all the female demon had said.


	14. Chapter 14

They encountered three more of the green-skinned demons as the female led Pat through the house, but none of them attacked her; one of them looked as if he was about to, then the female raised her hand and shook her head, and he held still, merely glaring at the black haired woman as she walked past him.

Forcing the urge to glance over her shoulder and back at him, Pat followed the other demon through the mansion; to her surprise, she wasn't taken downstairs, as she had somehow expected, but up into the second floor, the demon finally stopping in front of one of the doors and gesturing at it.

"In there", she then added, as if to make sure the taller woman had gotten her right; Pat took another hard look at her, then stepped forward and opened the door, not even noticing that she was holding her breath as she entered the room. She had to admit that, even though it was just as run-down as the rest of the house, they had taken care to make it nice and comfortable; it was warmer than the other areas of the building had been, and the few pieces of furniture inside were simple, but clearly new, a table with two chairs, a comfortable looking couch and a bed – and on said bed, Willow was sitting, turning to look as the door opened, her eyes going wide when her gaze met her lover's.

"Thank God", the demon breathed as she hurried over to the bed, her caution forgotten; the part of her brain which still was capable of rational thought noticed that, for some strange reason, handcuffs glinted on her partner's wrists, the chain which had connected them having been snapped in two, the cuffs still closed tightly though, not hindering her movement, but impossible to miss.

Having gotten over her surprise quickly, Willow got up from the bed and rushed to meet her; and moments later, she was in the demon's tight embrace, clinging to her as she let out a shaky breath, her relief so great that it was almost palpable.

"Are you alright?" Pat demanded to know after just holding her close for almost a minute, breathing in her scent and convincing herself that it was really the witch she was holding in her arms, "did they hurt you?"

"No", Willow reassured her, to her great relief, pulling back slightly so she could look at her, "they didn't… the demons I mean… the guys, not really, I'm fine… What's going on? I get kidnapped by a bunch of men and saved by demons? Shouldn't it be the other way round?"

Only now, the demon noticed that apparently, her captors had thought of providing the redhead with new clothing, after they had left hers on the ground to set up their little ambush; the t-shirt and jogging pants were clearly oversized for her, but seemed comfortable and fresh enough.

"I'm not sure what is going on", Pat had to admit in response, pulling her closer again as if to make sure she wouldn't be taken away again, "but I'm so glad you're okay, I was so worried… I'm so sorry I let them take you, I should have gone looking for you when you took so long…"

"Don't be", Willow told her immediately, "even though we live in Sunnydale, I guess not even we expect to be kidnapped from a restaurant restroom. Especially not by regular humans. Do you have any idea who they are?"

"Yes", Pat gave back at once, making her smile slightly, "but before we discuss this, I should get you out of here, I told Buffy and Alexia to come in here with blazing guns if I'm not back out with you in two hours… Bit more than an hour now. Oh, Alexia's here by the way, she helped track you."

"Calling in the big guns, huh", Willow replied, her smile widening, "that makes me feel all special."

"Well, you are", the demon told her, "and now, let's get you out of here, before Buffy and Alexia come storming in and start laying waste to those demons."

"I'm afraid we can't allow that", the voice of the female demon came from the door before Willow had the chance to reply something; frowning, Pat turned around to look at her, and that was when the male demon standing next to her fired his crossbow, the pained grunt the black haired woman let out when it hit her mixing with the cry coming from her lover, her voice crying out her name being the last thing Pat heard before the darkness engulfed her and took her away.

* * *

"No!" Willow cried out as the demon started to move into the room, approaching her fallen lover; she had a moment to see where the bolt had hit, the feathered shaft now sticking out of the taller woman's side, inches beneath her armpit, "stay away from her! You said you wouldn't harm us!"

"We said we wouldn't harm _you_ ", the female corrected her, "but we can't let you leave. Not until this child has been born and has been taken into our clan."

"Don't come closer", the redhead snapped in reply, crouching next to her lover and fighting the urge to pull her into her arms, knowing she might only make it worse, "stay away from her! From us!"

"She'll receive medical attention", the female replied, unimpressed by her anger, "we have no interest in killing her. We will use her well-being as… incentive though, to encourage compliance from you for the duration of your pregnancy."

"Stay away", Willow repeated, not sure what else she could say; in response, the female shook her head, still sounding calm and reasonable when she replied, her words prompting the witch to stare at her helplessly as she knew that the demon was right. "And then what? If we don't take care of this injury, you know she might not wake up in time to heal it. And you can't use your magic to aid her."

With a mixture of anger and fear, the witch glared down at the handcuffs; when the demons had gotten her out of the cage, and the room it had been in, she had been sure that those surroundings had been what had kept her from using her powers, but then she had ended up hit by that painful flash again when she had tried to use her magic and had been forced to realize that somehow, the handcuffs were what was keeping her from accessing the magic deep within her.

"Take care of her here, then", she demanded, knowing that she was in the weaker position now and hating how helpless it made her feel, "so I'll know you didn't just kill her!"

"We have no reason to kill her", the female replied, "but fine. If you insist. Karrahan, leave us."

"Are you sure?" the male demon rumbled in response, making her nod; he took another doubtful look at her, then apparently shrugged it off, since he turned and left the room without another word, closing the door behind himself while the female moved closer to the lifeless demon on the ground.

"I'm not going to harm her", she promised when Willow glared at her; still the witch didn't move back, but merely watched how the demon knelt down next to Pat, unable to hold back a wince when she grabbed the bolt and pulled it out, accompanied by a gush of blood and an awful fleshy noise which made the redhead's stomach turn.

Silently vowing to herself that she'd kill this demon with her bare hands, should she do anything to make Pat worse instead of better, Willow watched how the female concentrated, then placed her hands on the bleeding wound; and moments later, bright light started to flow from her fingers and over the wound, the witch feeling slightly relieved when not too long after, the injury closed, the only trace it ever had been there being the hole in the black haired woman's shirt and jacket and the bloodstains on her clothing.

"She should wake up again soon", the female told Willow, glancing away from the demon, "but surely you understand that we can't leave her in here with you. The risk for escape is too big."

And while she was still speaking, the male from before – _Karrahan,_ Willow remembered, _his name is Karrahan_ – re-entered the room, with yet another male in tow; crying out wordless protest, the witch tried to stop them, only to end up flat on her back as the female made a casual gesture at her, invisible strings of magic tying her down and to the floorboards before she even realized what was going on.

"No!" she still cried, struggling in vain as the two males grabbed the unconscious form of her partner and hoisted her up, "don't take her away! Leave her alone!"

"If she doesn't try to harm us, we won't harm her", the female replied, unimpressed by her cries, "have no fear. Her death or yours are not what we seek."

"You heard what she said", the witch gave back, regaining enough of her calm to sound convincing, "two friends of us are just outside, and they'll come looking for her if she's not back in an hour. And then they'll kill you all, because they'll realize something is off here when they find her locked up in some basement room, no matter how often you reassure them that you won't harm me."

In response, the female smiled, a slightly unsettling smile which made the redhead's skin crawl; and moments later, she realized why, the demon's voice deceivingly sweet and kind as she replied. "They might, yes. But they'd have to find her first… and get to you."

And with those words, she turned and left the room, the spell losing its hold on Willow the moment the door had snapped close behind her; and while the witch was still getting up and running for the door, the sound of a key turning echoed through the small room, her helpless cry ignored as she slammed both hands against the woods, her mind racing as she tried to figure out how to get out of this.


	15. Chapter 15

"Okay, we're going in", Buffy decided exactly two hours after Pat had left them behind, "it's been two hours, she's not back out, and that house has been way too quiet. Something must have gone wrong."

"I agree", Alexia gave back at once, to the Slayer's relief, "shall I go in my wolf form, or would you prefer me in my human form?"

"Human, for now", Buffy decided, "you can change quickly if necessary, right?"

"You've seen how quickly I can change", Alexia shrugged in response, making the blonde nod again; and then, without another word, she started moving, unlike Pat opting for the direct and brutal entrance by making her way to the front door and, not bothering with the lock, simply kicking it open.

"Subtle", Alexia commented while a cry went up somewhere in the house; and moments later, heavy footsteps thundered through the building as demons came running, wielding various weapons and yelling at each other as they spotted the Slayer and the shapeshifter.

"What a welcome", Buffy had still time to say, then the first was upon her and she was forced to concentrate on fighting; by her side, Alexia easily side-stepped the first attack made on her, a rather clumsy thrust with a spear, and took hold of the weapon, giving a powerful jerk which tore it out of the demon's arms and made it hers.

Snaring audibly, eerily reminding the Slayer of Pat, the shapeshifter twirled the weapon, then rammed it through the demon closest to her; and while he still was falling, she already had let go again, facing the next demon, and then Buffy had to put all her concentration on her own fight again, thus not seeing how the other woman took this opponent down with ease, as well.

Even though the demons clearly were skilled fighters, there were no real match for the Slayer and her shapeshifting friend; they fell one by one, and at the end, only Buffy and Alexia were standing, the blonde with a deep, but not very dangerous gash on one arm and the shapeshifter sporting a black eye, grimacing slightly as she felt the tender skin.

"One of them got you good", Buffy observed, "you're not having a concussion or anything, right?"

"No", Alexia replied at once, "I'm good. Let's go and find Willow and Pat."

"Can you track them?" the blonde wanted to know, "or is there too much demon smell around now after all this fighting and bloodshed?"

"Too much demon smell", the shapeshifter regretfully replied, "sorry. But I suppose we can find them even without me tracking them, I mean, the house isn't that big, right?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it", Buffy gave back, glancing around, "let's start down in the basement and work our way up. They must be around here somewhere."

Nodding her agreement, the shapeshifter glanced around, looking for the way to the cellar; and after a moment, they both started moving again, deeper into the house, not even noticing how the magic engulfed them, making sure that, no matter which turn they took and which hallway they walked down, they would never find what they were looking for.

* * *

"It has been three hours since your lover has been taken away", the female told Willow as she came back to the room yet again, "do you still believe that my words were but an empty threat? The Slayer and her friend are in our house, have been for the last two hours, but they will never find you. Or your demon."

"What did you do", Willow demanded to know, hating how tonelessly and frightened her voice sounded, but unable to keep the tone normal; in response, the female demon just smiled, then shrugged, the false sweetness back in her voice when she answered. "Nothing special. Just a simple ward which will confuse them and send them in circles, over and over again. I imagine sooner or later they'll just end up starving or dying of thirst."

"No", Willow almost growled, not noticing how her voice had changed, not even when the female went wide-eyed in response; the handcuffs were keeping her from using her magic, but the magic of the child within her was different, a blend of Pat's and hers, and now, with her lover and her best friend and someone who just had come to help in mortal danger, it was stirring, not willing to rest any longer.

Without realizing what was happening, the witch took a step forward, still growling lowly in the back of her throat; a bright red glow filled her eyes, and smoke started to rise from her hands, a startled gasp coming from the female demon at the sight.

"No", she then breathed, taking a step back, away from her and the sudden, unexpected danger she was, "you're not supposed to be able to…!"

"Surprise", Willow snarled, once more displaying the snarkier side normally reserved for her girlfriend; and then, she brought up her hands and flame shot from them, the demon screaming when they hit her and engulfed her, her skin and hair sizzling audible while the smell of burning flesh filled the room. Under different circumstances, this might have made the witch's stomach turn, or even might have made her stop; now though, fuelled by her concern for her loved ones, her rage and the powers of the child she carried, she knew no mercy, keeping the flames up until the demon slumped down to the ground, smoke rising from her charred corpse.

For a few seconds, Willow felt like throwing up when the smell hit her, and now, her stomach did turn; then, she fought those feelings down, telling herself that she didn't have time for this, still briefly wondering if their child had helped her with handling this before she shrugged it off, the flames vanishing into nothingness as her anger vanished.

Momentarily, she considered searching the corpse for the key of the handcuffs, then realized that, even if the female had had it, it probably had been melted to a tiny useless clump by the heat of the fire, and instead of wasting time with searching the corpse, the witch made her way to the door and carefully pushed it open, then peered outside, making sure that the hallway was empty before she stepped out of the room.

 _Alright, kid,_ she thought to herself, placing both hands on her stomach without even fully noticing that she was doing it, _good job in there with lending me your powers, or whatever exactly it was you did. Now, maybe, you'll have to do this again when we try to find your daddy… other mommy… you know what I mean…_

To her surprise and slight annoyance, she realized that she was doing the mental equivalent of babbling and made herself stop; another deep breath calmed her down further and, with her hands dropping down to her sides again, she started moving, not sure where she was going, but knowing that just standing around there wasn't an option, not when her partner was being kept the Goddess knew where and Buffy and Alexia were lost somewhere in the house.

Giving her best to not make too much noise as she started moving, trying to remember what Pat had mentioned to her about walking soundlessly, she made her way down the narrow corridor, hoping that she was going the right way and that she would find her partner or her best friend and the shapeshifter as quickly as possible.


	16. Chapter 16

In the darkness of her prison, Pat laid perfectly still, by now having learned the hard way that trying to move or to free herself only caused pain; she didn't know how exactly it happened, since it seemed to come out of nowhere, but she had given up on trying to find out, just holding still now, having figured out that this was the smartest thing to do until she could come up with something.

When Alexia had smelled the man waiting for her and had warned her about them before he could use his dart gun to knock her out, she had been sure that the danger of ending up in chains had been dealt with; apparently though, she had been too hasty in assuming so, now lying on her side with her wrists cuffed behind her back and her ankles chained together, as well, the thick gag and blindfold only adding to her discomfort.

Already when the bolt had hit her, she had realized how much trouble they really were in, and how well the female demon had deceived her with her sweet and helpful behaviour; and when she had woken up to find herself chained and helpless, anger had flared up within her, coupled with worry for Willow, the fact that the female demon had told her they couldn't let the redhead go still fresh on her mind.

Her first reaction, of course, had been a try to free herself; and immediately, the second she had moved, the blinding pain had hit her, her outcry a mix of shock and hurt, muffled by the gag, another yell following the first one when she tried again and the pain came up immediately again.

Now, after a few more useless tries which only had resulted in more pain, enough pain to nearly make her cry and to make sweat run down her face, she just laid there, her mind racing as she tried to figure out how to get out of this; to her dismay, apparently even just moving a finger was enough to set off whatever was giving her the pain, and momentarily, she was glad that at least, breathing wasn't enough movement to start whatever was responsible.

 _Well, you got yourself into some deep shit this time,_ she told herself, fighting the urge to shift on the rather hard and uncomfortable stone floor, _serves you right for being so trusting with that demon bitch, just because she didn't try to kill you on the spot._

Annoyed at how easily she had walked right into the trap, Pat growled to herself, an action which apparently wasn't punished by the intense pain either; that made her feel a bit better, but still didn't help her about getting out of this situation.

 _Don't forget, Buffy and Alexia are gonna come,_ she reminded herself, unaware of the fact that in this very moment, the blonde and the shapeshifter were lost in the house, caught in the magical ward the demons had put up for just that purpose, a spell which sent them walking in circles over and over again.

 _You better find a way out of this,_ she tried to prep-talk herself, _Willow needs you, and so does your child. You're not gonna just let those demons have them, right._

The mere thought of those demons getting their hands on the child, and the implication that they'd have to keep Willow captive for months to do so, made her blood boil again; she grit her teeth, biting down hard on the gag, trying to steel herself against the pain – before her muscles bulged as she gave the most powerful tuck she could manage, holding back yet another scream when more pain set her nerves aflame.

 _Goddammit,_ she helplessly thought to herself, _there has to be something I can do, some loophole or…_

Beneath the blindfold, her good eye widened as she finally remembered that she was capable of setting herself aflame at will, finding it hard to believe that she only had thought of this now; gritting her teeth again, not sure if it might cause her pain again, she let both hands flame up, feeling slightly better about the whole situation when no pain came this time.

 _There we go,_ she then told herself, sweat forming on her brow again as she concentrated, pouring all her energy and willpower into the fire, fuelling it; ever since she had started being with Willow, there hadn't really been much need for her to do this, but she still knew how to do it, how to heat up her flames to a degree that they would melt steel.

 _Like riding a bicycle,_ the demon sardonically thought as she kept heating up the flames, the droplets of sweat having turned into small rivulets which were running down her face and dripping to the floor; she was a bit dismayed at how much doing this was draining her, forcing her to admit that, even if she hadn't forgotten how to do it, it took a much bigger toll on her than it had back then, when she had still been working and had been using this particular ability regularly.

Still, she didn't let the exhaustion stop her, but kept pouring more and more heat into the flames; and finally, she could feel how the chain between the handcuffs started to give, and, once more steeling herself against the pain, she gave another tremendous pull – and suddenly, her arms were free, coming forward so unexpectedly that she nearly slammed them against the floor.

Breathing heavily, Pat quickly let the flames die down, by now feeling as if she had been running for hours while simultaneously lifting weights; and the moment the fire was gone, it was as if she had been doused in ice cold water, her whole body starting to tremble so hard that her teeth began to chatter.

Only now, she remembered that this was one of the nastier side effects of heating her fire up like that; she never had bothered to find out how exactly it worked, but whenever she stopped it, it seemed as if the heat she had poured into the flames was taken straight from her body, and the second the flames stopped, the heat went with them, leaving her as a trembling, cold and miserable mess.

 _Goddammit, woman, get a grip,_ she told herself, glad that apparently, her fire and the fact that now, the chain between the cuffs had been broken, had been enough to break the strange spell which had kept her from moving; still she trembled so badly that she didn't dare to try and move to remove the gag or the blindfold, her teeth chattering so hard by now that she feared they might break.

This, she later reasoned, was why she hadn't heard the door open; only when Willow cried out her name, her voice full of shock and fear, she realized that she wasn't alone anymore, only capable of letting out a low grunt in response, the sound of hurried footsteps reaching her ears moments before she was pulled into an embrace, the blindfold and gag being pulled off right afterwards.

"What's wrong?!" Willow demanded to know once her gaze met her fiancée's, "what did they do to you?"

"My own f-f-fault", Pat brought out through still chattering teeth, even though Willow's body heat was helping a bit, "h-had to h-heat up the f-fire f-for the ch-ch-chain…"

For a moment, Willow had no idea what she was talking about, then she noticed the cuffs still closed around her wrists, mirroring her own; apparently, they had been enchanted with a spell just like the ones she still was wearing, even though she couldn't quite figure out what the magic on Pat's had been doing, since she obviously had been capable of using her flames.

"G-Gonna be fine again s-soon", the demon reassured her, distracting her from those thoughts, "it's a-already g-getting b-b-be-better…"

Not sure what else she could do, especially with no access to her magic, Willow started rubbing the taller woman's arms and back in response, holding her close so she could warm up against her body; and finally, after what seemed like forever, she started to feel warmer again, her trembling and the chattering of her teeth stopping at last, to the redhead's great relief.

"Feel better?" she wanted to know, smiling slightly when the taller woman nodded in reply, testing her strength by sitting up again moments later; now that she could move again without the terrible pain hitting her, it was an easy task to remove the cuffs from her ankles, a slight smirk on her face as she gestured at the manacles the witch still was wearing.

"Want me to get those off of you?" she then offered, "I imagine you're keen on using your magic by now."

"Yes, because we have to save Buffy and Alexia next", Willow gave back, prompting her partner to raise an eyebrow questioningly, the redhead giving a small shrug before she elaborated. "That female demon said they got caught up in a ward which makes them walk around in circles, downstairs. We either have to find them or destroy that ward from the outside so they can find us."

"Alright, let's get rid of those cuffs then, and then we can go on our rescue mission", the taller woman agreed, "which is kinda ironic, seeing they came in here in the first place to save the two of us."

"It's kinda typical", Willow replied with a roll of her eyes, making her fiancée chuckle, "things can't ever be that easy for us. Now, about those cuffs…?"

"If I had a hairpin or something, I could try unlocking them", Pat let her know, "but unless you got one hidden somewhere, I'm afraid I'll have to use brute force. I'll try not to hurt you…"

"Alright", Willow bravely gave back, holding her breath when the demon grasped the cuff around her left wrist; she took the firmest hold of it she could manage, the steel around the smaller woman's wrist too tight to let her slip her fingers beneath it, then grit her teeth as she started pulling, the strain soon causing the veins in her neck to show, briefly fascinating the redhead as she could see every single heartbeat pulsing through them.

And then, just when she thought that not even her lover with her quite above average strength could manage this, the cuff snapped with an audible noise and some sparks as the magic which had been put on it evaporated; letting out her breath in a heavy huff, Pat wiped sweat off her brow, then moved on to the other manacle without a word, the witch holding perfectly still so she wouldn't get injured on accident, and holding back the urge to hurry the demon along, despite how eager she was to get out of this room and find their friends, knowing they had to do so quickly before it might be too late.


	17. Chapter 17

As they walked through the surprisingly quiet house, Willow caught herself touching the engagement ring again and again; along with her partner's presence, this gave her the reassurance she needed to keep a clear head, and to keep her fear and worry for Buffy and Alexia to cloud her mind with nightmarish images of their cruel demise.

"Where is everyone", Pat now whispered next to her, keeping her voice so low that the witch barely understood her despite how close they were walking to each other, "did they all run off when you killed their leader or what?"

"I'm not sure she was the leader", Willow whispered back, glancing around nervously, almost expecting a bunch of demons to jump out at them, "maybe they are just scared. I fried her quite thoroughly."

In response, Pat looked so annoyed that for a moment, the redhead was taken aback, asking herself what was going on now; before she could ask though, the taller woman explained, her words forcing her partner to hold back a giggle.

"You mean you did the fire thing _again_ ", Pat wanted to know, managing to sound incredulous despite still keeping her voice down, "and _again_ I wasn't there to see it?! This can't be true."

"Sorry?" Willow gave back, still fighting hard to hold back the giggles, "I swear I'm not doing this on purpose. It just… kinda happens whenever I get really angry. And I was so pissed at this stupid demon when she told me what her ward did to Buffy and Alexia… If I had known that they'd chained you up in this tiny room, I think I would have fried her even faster."

"Hmph", Pat let out in response, once more forcing the redhead to hold back laughter, "I wonder if I'll ever get to see this before this child is born. So far, every time you did that, I either wasn't there or unconscious."

"Well, you could try pissing me off enough to make me do it", the witch gave back, a small giggle escaping her despite her hard tries to hold it back at the incredulous look the demon shot her for that, "you are fireproof after all, so I wouldn't hurt you."

"Yeah, but I don't wanna piss you off", the taller woman pointed out in response, "I love you too much to do that."

"Aww", Willow cooed, smiling at the black haired woman; before she could say more though, a familiar voice came up in the distance, sounding both tired and slightly hopeful, and causing both Pat and the witch to stop dead in their tracks.

"Will?" they heard Buffy call again moments later, a hint of desperation in her voice now, "Pat? Are you there somewhere?"

"…yes", Willow was the first one to regain her voice, speaking up to make sure Buffy would hear her, "stay where you are, Buffy, there's an active spell which makes you walk in circles, I'll try to break it now that we found you… Is Alexia with you?"

"I am", Alexia answered herself, "and I've never been so happy to hear your voice before! We've been wandering around here for hours, killing demons and looking for you!"

"That explains where they all are", Pat commented, making the redhead nod – before she took in a deep breath and tried to find the calm state of mind she'd need to do magic, glad that the handcuffs had been removed and she thus was capable of doing so again without ending up in tremendous pain.

"I've never broken someone else's ward before", she let the taller woman know after a moment, glancing at her uneasily, "so I'm not exactly sure what will happen. It might get scary, but whatever happens, don't try to stop me or to interfere any other way, alright?"

"…alright", Pat gave back after a moment, with a slight frown though, not liking the sound of that; Willow briefly smiled at her, then looked down the hallway and focused, carefully reaching out with her magic, prepared for the moment she'd make contact to the magical essence of the female demon and to the ward she had put up.

Next to her, Pat watched in silence, not having an idea about what was going on, but by now having seen the witch do magic often enough to know that she wasn't just staring off into nothingness; and moments later, she had to hold herself back with a tremendous amount of willpower to keep herself from grabbing the redhead when she gasped and doubled over.

Gritting her teeth, Willow forced herself to straighten again, clenching her fists as she used her magic to _push_ against the ward, feeling it strain against her powers; just like during her first try, it resisted her efforts, the backlash sending a second lance of bright pain right into the centre of her brain, but this time, she withstood, sweat forming on her brow as she forced her magic against the ward once more.

From the corner of her eye, she noticed that Pat was fidgeting nervously, then realized why as she felt something warm and sticky trickle down her upper lip, a bit belatedly realizing that her nose had started bleeding; still she didn't stop, knowing that she had to break the ward to get Buffy and Alexia out, ignoring how the flow of blood from her nose increased and how her whole body started to tremble as she pushed once more.

"Come on", she pressed out, while next to her, Pat clenched her fists as well, in an attempt to keep herself from grabbing her as she staggered again, "break, damn you! Break!"

Another push, and along with it, a light breeze came up, just enough to raise her hair; next to her, the demon let out a sharp gasp as darkness started to fill the witch's eyes, the roots of her hair blackening, as well, the dark magic within her coming further and further to the surface as she kept up the pressure on the ward.

Not sure what to do, Pat fidgeted again, knowing what might happen if the darkness grew strong enough; she swallowed heavily, hating how helpless this was making her feel, clenching her fists as well as she kept staring at her fiancée, her mind racing as she tried to figure out what to do, the witch's warning about not interrupting her no matter what still fresh in her mind.

Just when she decided that no possible outcome of interrupting her could be as bad as what might happen if the darkness should take over again and reached out to touch her, hoping that a simple touch would be enough to snap her out of it, the redhead suddenly let out a low growl which sounded suspiciously like her own whenever got angry; smoke started to raise from her hands, and seconds later, the taller woman took a step back as the darkness was replaced with a bright red glow, one she knew all too well.

"Break", Willow snarled again, still with that distinctive growl in her voice, the smoke now not just curling from her hands, but from the rest of her body, as well; and seconds later, the ward shattered with a magical discharge strong enough to let Pat feel it as well, strong enough to make the redhead stumble back, the glow vanishing from her eyes and the smoke stopping, the demon seeing how her eyes rolled back in her head and acting on pure instinct, shooting forward and catching her before she hit the ground as her legs gave in underneath her.


	18. Chapter 18

While she was still holding Willow close, hurried footsteps could be heard, approaching them; and a minute later, Buffy and Alexia rounded the corner, both of them dirty and looking exhausted, even though that was replaced with a look of shock when they spotted the unconscious witch in the demon's arms.

"What happened?" Buffy demanded to know as she sped up even further, hurrying to the couple's side, "did someone attack you?"

"No", Pat declined, shifting slightly to get into a more comfortable position, Willow still in her arms, "she broke the ward, the spell which was making you walk in circles… It must have been pretty strong, it almost made her go dark, but then…"

Realizing that she was rambling and had no idea how to explain what had happened, she trailed off and shrugged helplessly; Buffy gave her a brief, confused look, then shrugged it off and focused on Willow again, kneeling down next to the couple while Alexia glanced around nervously, sniffing audibly as she tried to figure out if any other demons were nearby.

"We better get her out of here", the Slayer stated, having noticed both the shapeshifter's sniffing and the fact that Pat still had the cuffs around her wrists and ankles, the chains between them broken, the fact that the one between the manacles around her wrists was looking decidedly melted making the blonde raise an eyebrow.

"Yeah", Pat agreed at once, making sure that she had a good grip on the witch before she came to her feet, lifting her up, "and once we're out of here, we should call Giles and tell him that he can inform the coven we don't need their fancy locator spell anymore. Much good that did us."

"Good thing we don't need them anymore", Buffy gave back, smiling at her as they started walking, Alexia still sniffing loudly in an attempt to make sure no demons were waiting to ambush them, "even though I still would like to know why both those men and those demons were after Willow like that."

"Well, we know why the guys were after her", Pat shrugged, giving the lifeless redhead in her arms a concerned look as she asked herself when the witch would wake up again, "and the demons said something about not letting her go until that child was born, either. That kid must be one special baby."

"No surprise there, seeing how it was… conceived", Buffy muttered, earning a confused look from Alexia, which made her realize that so far, the shapeshifter had no idea about this; she promised that she'd explain later, making the other woman nod, "who knows what powers it might have."

"You don't buy this Antichrist stuff, do you", the demon wanted to know, frowning, relieved when immediately, the blonde shook her head.

"No, of course not", she then reassured her, "how could a child raised by the two of you turn out to be the Antichrist? But obviously, these guys do, and those demons want the kid as well, so it must be pretty powerful."

"Well, no matter why they want it", the demon gave back with a slight growl in her voice, briefly reminded of the moment she had heard the same thing in her partner's, "we won't let them have it. And if they're smart, they realized this now and will stay away from us."

"Hopefully, but that might be too good to be true", Buffy sighed, earning a glum nod from the taller woman; before she could reply anything, Willow let out a low groan in her arms, prompting her to stop walking immediately and say her name in concern, another groan being the reply to that.

"Come on, wake up", the taller woman encouraged, momentarily forgetting the urge to get out of the house as she lowered herself into a crouch, still keeping a careful hold on her, not wanting her to slip out of her grasp, "come on, Will, come back to us…"

A third groan, this time accompanied by a fluttering of her eyelids; and then, the redhead forced her eyes open, still appearing a bit dazed, but managing a weak smile when her gaze met the demon's, making it clear that she was awake and aware.

"How are you feeling?" Buffy wanted to know, causing the redhead's gaze to focus on her; with a weak shrug, Willow dared to sit up, glad when she didn't immediately end up dizzy, as it sometimes happened after such strong usage of magic.

"Kinda drained", she then mumbled, smiling slightly at her partner when she felt the black haired woman slip an arm around her and steadying her, "breaking that ward was really… tiresome."

"But you did it", Alexia beamed at her, "you saved Buffy and me from dying of thirst down there. Thank you."

"Welcome", the redhead gave back, briefly wishing for water, but knowing that none was at hand, thus pushing the desire aside, "couldn't really leave you behind in there, right?"

"Right", Buffy agreed, smiling as well; she took brief hold of the witch's hand and gave it a tender squeeze, then Pat spoke up again, making her fiancée look at her once more. "Think you can get up and walk? Or want me to carry you? Whatever you prefer."

"I can walk", Willow gave back, still holding on to her partner as she came to her feet; for a few terrifying moments, her legs felt like jelly, then seemed to stabilize, but still she kept one hand on the taller woman's arm, not wanting to end up sprawled on the ground after taking the first few tentative steps.

"Are you sure", Pat wanted to know, giving her a concerned look as she felt her grip on her tighten, "breaking that spell took quite the toll on you, you know none of us will think any less of you if you decide you can't."

"I know", the witch gave back, still holding on to her as she took the first careful step, "but I can do it, really. Let's just get out of here and go home, all I want is a big meal, then a hot tub and then some sleep."

"Sounds like a plan", Pat smirked, moving closer to her so she could wrap one arm around her waist, just in case, making sure she wouldn't end up falling after all as they made their way through the house, back to the front door.

"Seems like they all are either dead or ran off", Buffy commented as they reached said door without running into any more demons, "not that I mind, even for the Slayer, I've had enough fighting for a day."

"I could take a bit more", Pat gave back, not really surprising the blonde, but making her roll her eyes nonetheless; moving past her, she pushed the door open and stepped outside, glancing around to make sure no demons were lying in wait before she moved on, making it possible for Alexia to leave the house as well.

Right behind the shapeshifter, Pat and Willow left the building, the demon still having one arm around the smaller woman's waist; just like Buffy, she glanced around automatically as they made their way down the stairs leading up to the front door, and just when her gaze focused on the witch again, the loud bang broke the forest's silence, the redhead stumbled out of her grasp and fell, blood dripping to the stairs moments later, the demon's shocked cry mixing with the pained gasps Willow was letting out.


	19. Chapter 19

"Oh God", Buffy brought out, her eyes wide with shock as all she could do was stare; and moments later, she found herself down on all fours as Alexia practically tackled her and forced her down, glancing around frantically as she tried to stop the shooter while behind her, Pat had knelt down next to Willow, frantically talking to her in an attempt to keep her awake while she pressed down on the bullet wound in her chest with one hand, ignoring the hot and sticky blood flowing over her fingers.

"Hold on", she said again, hurriedly patting her pockets as she searched for the pouch of powder she always carried, the powder which would aid the spell to let the witch borrow her healing, "you'll be okay, I'll do the spell and you'll be okay, I promise… Just don't black out on me, alright? Just stay awake, it'll be fine…"

She held back the growing panic as she couldn't find the pouch anywhere, not daring to use both hands to search it, telling herself that she had to keep up the pressure on the wound; and just when she started resigning herself to the fact that obviously, the demons had taken the pouch while she had been unconscious, the witch let out another gasp, her hand coming up to grab the taller woman's, her eyes going wide.

"What…", the demon started, then fell silent as the grip the witch had on her tightened with unexpected strength; gritting her teeth, Willow arched her back, her nails digging into Pat's arm; and then, the fleshy noises the taller woman knew so well started to come up, her good eye going wide as she realized what was happening, Buffy letting out a gasp, as well.

"It hurts", Willow pressed out, sweat rolling down her cheeks, "Pat, it hurts…"

"I know", the black haired woman hurriedly reassured her, still pressing down on the wound even though she knew that soon, it wouldn't be necessary anymore, "but it'll stop soon, any minute now, just let it happen, don't fight it… I promise it'll be over soon…"

She glanced around in an attempt to spot the one who had shot, even though she figured that by now, they were quite far gone – if it had been a sniper hired by the men who had kidnapped the redhead in the first place, he would have run off right after making the shot, making sure he would be far gone by the time they'd be capable of searching for him.

Another drawn-out groan from the redhead made her focus on her again, and she briefly grimaced when Willow's nails dug into her arm nearly hard enough to draw blood; and then, a silvery glint at the witch's chest caught her eye, an unarticulated noise of relief coming from her as the bullet was forced out and fell to the ground with a soft _clink_.

"Wow", Alexia mumbled, looking and sounding rather dumbstruck, "how did she…? Was that magic? She didn't do a spell, right?"

"No", Pat was the one to answer that, without looking away from Willow, the redhead's breathing to her relief slowing down again, some of her facial colour returning, as well, "it's an ability I have, in demon form, and it seems that our child has the same ability…"

"…and gave it to her", the shapeshifter finished, looking at her in awe, "this is amazing… You have to tell me all about this once we're safe."

"And we better get to safety before whoever shot her realized he didn't kill her and tries again", Buffy suggested, looking around nervously; nodding, this time, Pat didn't even bother to ask Willow if she could walk, but simply grasped her and picked up her, giving her an apologetic look when she let out a weak groan at the motion.

"Sorry", she then mumbled, hurriedly moving away from the house and fighting to urge to run bent over, to minimize the possible target area for the unknown shooter, "the pain will stop in a few minutes, if it's like my healing…"

"Good to know", Willow mumbled, holding on to her as she sped up, eager to get away from the house and into the bit of cover the forest would provide; and just before the demon reached the trees, another shot broke the silence, the bullet whisking past the black haired woman's head close enough to let her feel the draft and taking a chunk of wood out of the tree right by her side.

"Shit, shit, shit", she let out, now hunching over after all, somehow managing to do so without dropping Willow, the witch clinging to her in fear; behind them, Buffy and Alexia ran ducked down as well, the shapeshifter letting out a little squeal when another shot echoed, thankfully not hitting any of them.

"Hurry", Buffy snapped, glancing around wildly as she tried to figure out where the shooter was hiding, "once we're among the trees, we'll be harder to hit…"

"I hate the smell of gunpowder", Alexia complained as she ran along next to her; they both found cover behind a rather broad oak, the shapeshifter sniffing audibly to figure out where the shooter was hiding while Pat and Willow took cover behind another tree nearby, the demon growling lowly in the back of her throat when a third shot made them all flinch.

"Hey!" she then called out, even though she wasn't sure the shooter was even close enough to hear them, "coward, show yourself!"

The only answer she got was another shot, again barely missing her; grumbling to herself, she pressed her back to the tree, then felt the witch grab her hand and squeeze it, the sweat which had formed on the smaller woman's palm prompting the demon to give her a reassuring glance.

"It'll be okay", she then whispered, "we'll get out of this…"

Bravely, Willow nodded, even though she wasn't sure how exactly they would get out of this; for a few moments, Pat pondered this as well, then her gaze focused on Alexia, the taller woman still keeping her voice low so the shooter hopefully couldn't hear them as she hissed her name.

"Can you find him?" she demanded to know once she had the shapeshifter's attention, "by smell?"

"I can try", Alexia whispered back, "but I can't promise anything, the gunpowder smell is really strong and it's everywhere…"

"Try it", Buffy agreed, now regretting that they had left the two men back at the other building alive and had merely knocked them out instead of finishing them off; as the Slayer, she technically wasn't supposed to kill humans, but on the other hand, these men were clearly more than willing to kill all of them, just to get Willow.

Nodding, Alexia moved a few inches away from the tree, then got down on all fours and hurriedly changed into her wolf form; snarling quietly, she sniffed audibly, then started moving, the rest staying hidden behind their cover, with the demon holding her partner close to herself in an attempt to give her some reassurance as they all silently waited if the shapeshifter would be successful and end the danger – or if they'd end up running through the woods, in a dangerous attempt to get away from the unseen sniper.


	20. Chapter 20

For a while, the woods were almost perfectly silent, no more shoots being fired at them, and Alexia moving so quietly that not even Buffy and Pat, with their better-than-average hearing, could hear her; and then, just when they all started wondering how long exactly it had been and if perhaps, the shapeshifter had gotten lost, a loud growl broke the silence, followed by a pained scream and yet another shot.

"She got him", Buffy hissed, already coming to her feet, "quick, let's go help her before he hurts her!"

Nodding, even though she knew there wasn't much she'd be able to do if the guy was a regular human, Pat left the cover together with the Slayer, making sure Willow was staying behind them as she hurried into the direction of the snarl and the scream, the sounds of fighting which now came up making this much easier.

It didn't take long until they came upon the fight scene, Alexia still in wolf form, snarling and growling as she avoided the man's clumsy attacks; clearly, he had given up his sniper rifle in favour of the hunting knife he now was holding, the fact that he was bleeding from a rather large bite wound in his leg making fighting obviously quite hard for him.

"Drop the knife", Buffy snapped at him as soon as they were within earshot; he briefly glanced at them, then focused on the wolf in front of him again, swiping at her with his knife, Alexia easily avoiding the attack and snarling at him again; gritting her teeth as well, Pat clenched her fists, but didn't attack yet, not wanting to end up crippled by the blinding pain from the chip and leave a perfect opening for an attack.

"Drop the knife now", Buffy ordered again, clearly not willing to throw herself at him either, the knife looking just a tad too big and sharp for that, "you're outnumbered!"

"Wait", Willow mumbled behind her, her eyes narrowing as she focused, "maybe I can do something about that knife…"

She brought up her hands, focusing on the magic within her, then on the knife; and moments later, she could almost see the tendrils of power as they shot from her fingertips and towards the knife, wrapping around it, one small gesture being enough to jerk it out of the man's hand, a small surprised gasp coming from him as he lost his weapon.

The moment it was gone, he did make a dive for the discarded rifle after all, but never reached it; having realized what he was up to now, Buffy had thrown herself into his path and tackled him, throwing him down to the ground, her Slayer strength making it easy for her to pin him down despite the fact that he was much taller and bulkier than she was, his eyes widening when he had to realize that he couldn't break free of the hold she had on him.

"Stop struggling", she snapped at him, losing her patience with him quickly, "who sent you? Those creeps from the pope? Answer me!"

"You better do what she said", Pat added, taking the knife from Willow, "or I might get creative with that knife. Unlike Buffy, I have no problems with hurting humans."

To her relief, the guy obviously bought her bluff and had no idea about her current limitations; he gulped heavily, his gaze moving back and forth between her and the blonde before it finally focused on the Slayer and he gave the tiniest nod, just enough to be noticeable.

"Alright", Buffy gave back, while Pat handed the knife back to Willow, then moved to the rifle and picked it up, "here is how this will go down. We won't kill you, because we're not like you guys, but you will go back to those who hired you and tell them that, if they mess with anyone of us ever again, all bets are off. Come near any of us again, and we'll at first kill you, and then those who sent you, down to the last man."

She briefly glanced at Pat, just long enough to let her notice; and with a smirk that bordered on malicious, the demon took firm hold of the rifle's barrel – and then, with her muscles bulging visibly, she bent it into a perfect U, the screeching sound of the metal bending making Alexia whimper while Willow couldn't hold back a slight smile.

"You might be able to imagine now what she can do to your bones", Buffy smiled while the demon tossed the now useless rifle aside, "so keep I mind what I told you. Call your buddies off. Stay away from us."

"I will", he brought out, his voice trembling audibly, "but… the others won't… They'll never stop, until that child is dead."

"And we'll never stop protecting her", Pat told him, glaring at him with her eye briefly flashing up red and actually making him whimper, "tell them that, too. Tell them whoever they send will have to go through Buffy and through me first, and through our powerful allies. You think Alexia here is the only shapeshifter we have on our side? There's a whole Pack of them, and you don't wanna mess with them. Not to mention a whole coven of powerful witches, just waiting for our call."

Alexia let out an agreeing growl, and for a moment, the man looked as if he was about to wet his pants; before this could happen though, Buffy pulled back her fist and sent him off into dreamland with a well-aimed punch to his temple, his eyes rolling back into his head as he fell unconscious.

"Good one", Pat complimented her, "now let's get out of here. I've had enough of being in danger for today."

"Agreed", Willow nodded at once; and while they smiled at each other, Alexia hurriedly changed back to her human form, the four of them hurrying through the woods afterwards, eager to get back home and get some rest after all the excitement they had been through.

* * *

After they had made it safely back to the apartment and Alexia had headed off back to the Pack, now that the danger was more or less over and Willow had been found, the first thing the couple did was order food; and after that had been devoured, the witch moved to the bathroom, claiming that she wanted a nice and long hot tub before they'd go to bed.

"I'll be right there", Pat told her, with a strange glint in her eye that made the redhead slightly uneasy, even though she couldn't tell for sure why, "I have to make a phone call first."

"…alright", Willow agreed after a moment, giving her a critical look; then, she decided that the taller woman knew what she was doing and made her way to the bathroom, turning on the hot water there and making sure that it had a pleasant temperature before she added bubble bath, then undressed, asking herself how long it would take Pat to make that mysterious call as she slid into the hot water.

Thanks to the noise the running water was making, she couldn't hear what the demon was saying; whatever it was though, it didn't take too long to be said, since she joined her in the bathroom not even five minutes later, raising an eyebrow at the mountain of foam which had by now been generated in the tub.

"Aw", she then let out, already unbuttoning her shirt, "all that foam keeps me from getting a good look at you. Shame."

"As if you'd need the tub for that", Willow winked, "you know you can get a good look whenever you want. Also, you can join me and get a good feel, as well."

"Good point", the demon smirked, hurriedly taking off the rest of her clothes before she joined the witch in the tub; it took some shifting and careful movement, but finally, they both were comfortable, the redhead nestled into her partner's embrace, her back leaning against the taller woman's front.

"So", she mumbled once she had gotten comfortable, idly tracing invisible patterns on the black haired woman's leg and taking the chance giving by this to admire her engagement ring once more, "do I want to know whom you called and why?"

"Nothing all too bad", Pat reassured her, "I just called in an old favour and made sure that the creeps from the Vatican will stay away from the two of us in the future. And from our child."

"Alright", the redhead decided to accept that explanation, "as long as it means that these guys will stay away from us, I guess I can live with not knowing any more details. Just tell me it won't result in countless deaths…?"

"Don't worry, it won't", the demon gave back with a slight chuckle, "I just asked someone to deliver… a warning, of sorts. No worries, you won't read about the pope having been assassinated or something."

"Good", the witch replied with a slight giggle, "because we have a wedding to plan, and that would surely upset my planning abilities."

"And we don't want that", Pat chuckled, making Willow nod her agreement – before she turned slightly in the demon's embrace, just enough so she could kiss her tenderly, smiling up at her afterwards, the sparkle in her eyes almost automatically making the black haired woman smile back at her.

"I don't know about you", Willow told her, "but honestly, I want to have this wedding rather quickly… Preferably before I get all round. And with all that action in our lives, we better not waste too much time."

"Agreed", the demon gave back, to her relief and happiness, "we can get started tomorrow, if you like. There'll be quite a bit to do…"

"Indeed", the witch agreed, "and I agree with getting started tomorrow… But for now, let's just relax."

Nodding, the taller woman stole another kiss from her, then the redhead settled in her arms again more comfortably; and for a while, all stress and troubles fell off of them as they relaxed, both of them glad that once more, they had gotten out of the danger safely, with both them and their child unharmed and fine.


	21. Chapter 21

With a slight frown, the pope put down the report, shaking his head to himself; when he had sent the men to find the witch and neutralize the child she was carrying, he momentarily had felt bad about it, considering the view the church normally had on murder and keeping in mind the fifth commandment, but on the other hand, he had read the prophecy and had known that they couldn't allow it to come true.

Thus, he had sent the best men the Vatican had for such cases, confident that they would do the job, as they had so often; and now, all but two of them were dead, and the sniper they had hired after their initial plan had failed had been scared badly enough by the Slayer and her companions that now, he refused to leave his room and had vowed to never pick up another sniper rifle, ever, claiming again and again that he couldn't forget "the screeching", even though none of them knew it what meant.

Before he had hidden away in his quarters, the sniper had given them the Slayer's message, and the words the witch's hellspawn lover had said to him; and if he had been anyone else, the pope might have been worried, but he knew that they couldn't touch him, not in the Vatican, where he was surrounded by people who had no other goal in life than making sure that he would be okay.

And he was still on that train of thought when the window flew open, and a gust of wind picked up the pages of the report and sent them flying through the room; he gasped, but before he could do more than that, the woman had entered through the open window, giving him a second to wonder how she had done this, considering how high up they were – before she smiled at him, a malicious smile which made his blood run cold.

"Benedict", she then greeted him, not bothering to address him the correct way, "how nice you could make time for me."

In response, he took in a breath to yell for his men, so they would come bursting in and stop this maniac, before she could do God knew what to him; her smile widened slightly, and she made a short gesture at him, the only sound which left his throat seconds later being a high-pitched wheeze.

"No yelling", she told him, moving over to him and pushing him, making him slump back down into his seat, "don't worry, I'm not here to kill you. Yet. But if you send someone after my friends again, and don't try to tell me you don't know who I am talking about, I will come here to kill you. And as you just saw, I have no troubles to get past all your safety measures, right into your office."

She gave him another smile, then picked up one of the few report pages which had landed on the desk and glanced at it – before she ripped it in half and tossed the pieces into his lap, her voice hard as she went on. "I can enter your bedroom just as easily. Or any other room you are in. And if anyone is with you, I can kill them with a snap of my fingers. So call your men back, and tell them that Willow, her child, and anyone close to her is off limits. Got that?"

Still unable to speak, he nodded frantically, and she gave him another smile; she took the time to remind him once more of the gruesome things she could do to him before she turned and left the same way she had come from, leaving him trembling in his chair, his eyes wide with fear.

Carefully, he tested his voice, using its return to whisper a quick prayer to the Lord, asking for protection – and then he picked up the phone and called the one responsible for the operation, managing to keep the tremble out of his voice when the other man took the call.

"Sunnydale is called off", he told the man, ignoring the surprised noise he received as a reply, "we will not make any more attempts on the witch or her spawn."

"…yes, Sir", the man on the other end of the line agreed after a moment, his voice carrying an unspoken question; not bothering to answer it, the pope hung up the phone, then leaned back into his seat and wiped sweat off his brow with a trembling hand, crossing himself afterwards, sending another prayer afterwards that he hadn't just made a dreadful mistake.

End.


End file.
